Auburn volleyball hangs tough, but can't overcome Missouri's balanced attack

Tatum Shipes continues her impressive freshman campaign as she recorded 10 kills, leading the team. Shipes struggled getting good looks on her attacks, finishing with a .000 hitting percentage. It has been a trend that Auburn has struggled with all season. Auburn, as a team, had a hitting percentage of .170 compared to Missouri who had a strong .337 hitting percentage. Missouri's 8 blocks and tall middle blockers proved to be difficult to overcome. 

Mica Allison continues to be another shinning spot in a great Auburn recruiting class having a team high 30 assists, which is just another day for the standout freshman. Chesney McClellan had a breakout game of her own. McClellan totaled 6 kills, good for third on the team, and a htting percentage of .235. Senior leader Brenna McIlroy was second on the team with 8 kills.

Missouri bested Auburn in almost every category, but still was not able to pull away from Auburn until the third set. There was 10 ties in the first set and 12 ties in the second, but Missouri soundly put away the game thanks to their balanced attack. Darian Hollinsworth led the team with 11 kills and did her part on defense adding in 10 digs for a double-double. Alyssa Munlin (10 kills), Tyanna Omazic (9 kills) and Kylie Deberg (8 kills) led the rest of the Mussouri brigade in their balanced war of attrition against Auburn.

Errors was the story of the night. Auburn ended with 20 attack errors and 7 service errors, mistakes that kept a solid Auburn team from getting a big win tonight. 

No. 24 Missouri (21-5, 11-3 SEC) goes back home to host the Georgia Bulldogs. Auburn (10-14, 3-11 SEC) stays at home and hosts No. 14 Florida Sunday at noon. The game can be heard live on WEGL 91.1 FM or online at weglfm.com starting with the pre-game show at 11:45 am CT.