After beating the Tennessee Volunteers 3-1 in Neville Arena last Friday, the Auburn Tigers (18-2, SEC: 7-2) look to continue their record-breaking season tonight against the 14th ranked Florida Gators (15-4, SEC: 7-2), who are coming off last Wednesday's loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Both the Tigers and Gators are currently tied for first place in the SEC, making this game that much more important.
So far this season, both the Tigers and Gators have been dominant on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The Tigers' 27% hitting percentage is 3rd in the SEC while only allowing opponents a clip of 17.2%, which trails only Florida for the best mark in the conference. The Gators and Tigers also lead the conference in blocks per set at a rate of 2.78 and 2.6, respectively. However, the Tigers lead the conference by a wide margin in total blocks with 208, 10.5 more than the next closest team (Florida, who else?).
The dangerous Tigers offense is led by freshmen Akasha Anderson and Madison Scheer, who lead the team in points with 341.5 points and 258.5 points, respectively. And while junior Jackie Barrett ranks just sixth on the team in points, her 663 assists ranks third in the entire SEC. Sophomore Merritt Beason and senior Marina Markova lead the Gators in points at this point in the season, while freshman Alexis Stuckey ranks second in second in assists in the conference with a whopping 719.
Tonight's game is set to start at 7 P.M. inside Neville Arena. The game will broadcasted live on WEGL 91.1 FM and on weglfm.com.
