The Auburn volleyball team (4-4) travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan in their final 3 non-conference games of the season in the Western Michigan Tournament. In the first game earlier today, the Tigers lost in 4 sets (22-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-22) to Michigan State at University Arena.
Set One
After the Tigers who fell behind early, mustered a 9-2 scoring run lead by Sophomore Tatum Shipes who recorded 8 kills in the match. The Auburn defensive front took control in this set with big blocks from Shaina White and Val Green to go ahead 20-14. Unfortunately, that is where the scoring and defensive work would end for the visiting Tigers as they would go on and drop the set, 25-22.
Set Two
Similar to the Set One, Auburn had come out of the gates slow and MSU took advantage of the Tiger miscues to go ahead. Later in the set, Kills from Shipes and Val Green would tie the set back up at 11 apiece. Senior Enija Bidzane who finished with 7 kills/2 blocks would go on to make sure Auburn kept their momentum the second half of the set to win 25-22.
Set Three
Auburn did a better job competing with MSU early in the set after the first timeout was called when the Spartans went ahead 10-7. Michigan State although did not look back from this point on, continuing their momentum to break the set tie and win 25-20.
Set Four
The Tigers couldn’t combat the momentum from MSU from the third set and took a substantial early lead, 13-5 before and Auburn timeout. Chesney McClellan was the most active Tiger in their final set finishing with 6 kills/3 blocks. The Tigers brought the set back to 22-20, but could not hold on after batting against three match sets from MSU before the Spartans took it 25-22.
