AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 24 Auburn Tigers take on the No. 3 ranked Florida Gators this Friday at Neville Arena.
The Auburn Tigers look to keep their momentum rolling with a season defining win over the powerhouse team of the Florida Gators. The Tigers are on a hot streak recently, winning their last five games. The Gators are looking to right the ship after taking their first loss at home in a close matchup against No. 1 Wisconsin.
The loss came after Florida’s star setter, Alexis Stucky, went down with a leg injury in the second set. Wisconsin came back from being down two sets and claimed a huge road victory in front of over 10,323 fans, which was the largest crowd for a volleyball game in SEC history.
The Tigers finished their nonconference play in Mobile last week at the Alabama Showdown. Auburn beat South Alabama at home with an absolute barnburner, going back and forth in the first four sets before the Tigers dominated the fifth and final set. The Tigers then faced UAB on Friday and handily defeated the Blazers 3-1. The Blue & Orange destroyed any advance the Blazers made by having a record 19 blocks in the match, in route to finishing the Alabama Gauntlet with a 3-1 win over the Samford Bulldogs.
The Tigers need to be doing everything right to compete with this Gator team. It starts with serving, as Auburn needs to consistently hit Florida with 30-40 mile-per-hour serves. Auburn will need to have a great blocking performance like it did against UAB last week. The Tigers and Gators matchup pretty evenly when it comes to height, so the home squad is going to have to play physically.
The Tigers also need to focus on Florida’s weak spot. Losing Amanda Stucky hurt big time for Florida, as she was the SEC freshman of the year in 2022. Her replacement, Kennedy Muff, is 3 inches shorter than Stucky. Muff recently moved up to Division I volleyball this year, so if the Tigers can focus attacks on the newcomer, it could lead to an upset win.
The final aspect the Tigers will need is a big crowd in Neville Arena. For Auburn, this will more than likely be its biggest game at home all year. In addition, it is the start of SEC play, so a win here would be big for momentum going forward.
“When people come and watch these athletes play, if they’ve never seen volleyball before at a high level, it’ll blow their mind,” Auburn head coach Brent Crouch said. “If you’ve never been to a volleyball game, this is the one to come to.”
In the battle of swamp versus jungle, who will come out on top? Find out this Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT in Neville Arena. The game will be broadcast on SECN+ and WEGL 91.1 FM.
