Auburn VB wraps up homestand this weekend
The Auburn Volleyball team is wrapping up their season-long six-game home stand this weekend. The Tigers open with Georgia on Friday, and then close with South Carolina on Sunday. Thus far, Auburn has gone 2-2 in this home stand. Head coach Brent Crouch assessed his team’s performance in those games.
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“It’s (offense) been balanced in a way that it has not been earlier in the year. Number of attempts have been spread out a bit more, among more people. The kills have been spread out. I think we had four players with double digit kills against Oklahoma. All four of the pins had double digit kills,” Crouch said.
Crouch believes the lineup he has right now is the best one Auburn has started all season. This included moving middle blocker Kate Mansfield to the right side of the court and having outside hitters Belle Patrick and Lauren Dreves switch sides. Freshman Emily Keiran spoke about the chemistry of this new starting group
“I think we have made it important to have a really good team culture. Whether that be on the court or outside of the court, just being there for each other. If someone is having a bad day we pick them up and carry them with us. I think that has been really good for our team,” Keiran said.
Right now, Dreves is second on the team in kills with 185. An impressive stat, indeed, considering she was injured at the beginning of the year and missed some time. Dreves spoke to Auburn Undercover about her reflections of the recovery process and how it prepared her for the season.
“Obviously it wasn’t something I expected to happen this season. It kinda just showed me a whole new perspective of different things. Just an outlook of looking at volleyball and stuff,” Dreves said.
Georgia comes to Neville Arena with a 14-7 record and 6-5 conference record. They are, however, on a four-game losing streak. Crouch said a lot of Auburn’s defensive schemes will be geared towards shutting down outside hitter Bianna Muoneke. “Really good left side. She leads the team in kills, leads the team in attempts. A large part of our defense is can we slow her down on the left side,” Crouch said.
Dreaves added, “We are focusing on the little things, like focusing on blocking, what kind of offense they are running and how we are going to defend it. I think that is how we are setting ourselves up for success,”
Crouch is also concerned about Georgia’s serving. Although he has confidence in his team’s ability to receive serves, getting into an attacking position immediately has not always been crisp. “If you have bad passing, the setters can’t distribute the ball. One is an offensive thing, one is you’re trying to react. That’s just the nature of it. Can we receive well? If we can, scoring on offense should not be a problem,” Crouch said.
Keiran talked about the team’s preparation for the Georgia service game. “In practice, we got out the machine and practiced top spin serves. Having the coach’s help with that, like setting us up and really setting us up for success,” she said.
Auburn sits at 13-10 with a 3-8 conference record. Crouch still believes the postseason is in play for them, despite it not being as comfortable as he would like. He said if his team takes care of business beginning this weekend, there could well be a tournament run in their future.
“We have four matches left. I think they are all winnable. Then, if we can get one or two in the SEC tournament, then we still have a chance to go. We have to take care of these. These are four really big matches,” Crouch said.
“Yes you want to look at the future, the NCAA tournament and the postseason, but I think right now for our team I think it is really important to take it one game at a time because I think that will honestly help you in the future,” Dreves said.
“The tournament is definitely an end goal of ours. We aren’t focusing on the past and the game we can’t go back and play. We are not focusing too much on the future and what we need to accomplish. Focusing on the present moment,” Keiran said.
Tip-off for Friday’s match is set for 6 p.m. Sunday’s match will get underway at 2 p.m. Both will be held inside Neville Arena. Admission is free to the public.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
