Auburn, Ala. —Today was Auburn’s second face-off against the Georgia Bulldogs, this time in women’s volleyball. Like yesterday’s football game, the match was hard fought with both teams giving it their all, but this time it ended in an Auburn victory as Auburn won the match 3-1 in four sets.
Today’s match saw the return of Auburn’s Kendal Kemp, who had been out the previous five games with an injury, and she certainly made a difference in the match today.
Kemp had a total of eight blocks, four kills, and a 0.667 hit percentage, which was the highest of any Auburn player in the entire match. The sophomore's performance was spectacular, and it was great to see her back in action on the court.
Jackie Barret, setter for the Auburn Tigers, said “She [Kemp] worked hard to make sure she got her spot back and that she could play,” which certainly showed in her performance today with how well she played, and the contributions she made to Auburn’s victory.
Kemp’s return certainly helped the Auburn Tigers get a victory in the Volleyball edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, but the whole team played great and ensured that Auburn would not end this weekend with no win against Georgia.
Looking at the game overall, it was a very back-and-forth game where both teams gave it their all in trying to come up with a victory, but in the end, the Auburn Tigers outplayed the Georgia Bulldogs.
One of the things people may look at and say that it wasn’t such a back-and-forth game is the fact that there were only six lead changes in the entire match, but to refute the claim there were 19 ties, and the largest lead of the game was when Georgia was up seven points in the third set. Other than Georgia being up seven points once in the game, much of the match was played where one team would only hold a lead of two to three points before the other team was right back in the match.
If there is anything Auburn should take away from this victory, it’s that they should not take the foot off the gas in the third set, even though they bounced back and won the game in four sets, if some of the mistakes made in the third set don’t happen then the match could have been over in a clean sweep.
Overall, though, the match was well played by both teams, and it's great that Auburn was able to pull off the victory in the volleyball edition of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
Auburn has now passed the halfway point of the season finishing the first half 12-3 and this Friday Auburn will rematch against the Florida Gators on the road, who they took to five sets in Neville Arena eventually losing in the final set. So, if they “continue to play the game that we’ve been playing and we’re going to have a good game,” like Jackie Barrett said, then hopefully Auburn can pull off a victory and upset on the Florida Gators home turf.
