AUBURN, Ala. – Freshman Lauren Dreves (10 kills, 13 digs) dialed up her fifth double-double of the season but it was enough to get Auburn (13-2, 3-1) past Texas A&M (11-2, 2-1) as the Tigers dropped its first SEC bout of the year, 3-1 (25-20, 18=25, 25-21, 25-19).
Right away it was clear there wasn’t much that would separate the two sides. Midway through the opening set, both were deadlocked at 13.
Even though Dreves and Kalei Edson each collected an ace, the Aggies managed a pair of scoring runs to give the visitors the lead, 25-20.
Tougher serving and stronger defense helped the Tigers flip the script in set No. 2.
Thanks to the sturdy passing of Auburn’s back row, Bel Zimmerman and Madison Scheer both feasted on quicker tempo. Zimmerman powered down four kills on .429 hitting while Scheer managed three kills on .333.
With her fifth kill of the afternoon, Zimmerman eclipsed 500 for her career.
Meanwhile, Dreves added two more aces to her total and Alexis Dacosta flew around for five digs. In all, it added up to a 25-18 performance and tied the match at one set apiece.
Much like the first set, both Auburn and Texas A&M found it difficult to create separation in the third.
Scheer and Dreves each collected five kills on 10 swings. Scheer, along with Bella Bell, Chelsey McCurdy and Grace Havlicek all found a block as well.
McCurdy, the graduate from Puyallup, Washington recorded the 200th block of her Auburn career.
Auburn drew as close as 20-22 late in the frame. However, a couple of unforced errors led to one last push from the Aggies and put the Tigers behind two sets to one.
Head coach Brent Crouch’s crew did their best to make passing difficult on Texas A&M. Fallan Lanham earned the Tigers’ ace in the fourth set as the Orange and Blue were trying to force the Aggies out of system.
McCurdy found three more blocks and Scheer collected three more kills to end her afternoon with a team-high 13. Defensively, Dacosta added four more digs to her total to finish with 17 and Dreves picked up another three to get to 13.
Along with her 10 kills, Dreves secured her fifth double-double of the season.
Still, the Texas A&M offense was undeterred, finishing out the fourth set and completing the victory, 3-1.
Match Notes
- Auburn’s 11.0 blocks marked the ninth time the Tigers reached double digits this season
- Madison Scheer (13 kills) reached double digit for the 12th time in 2024
- Lauren Dreves (10 kills, 13 digs) notched her fifth double-double of the season
- Dreves’ 10 kills also marked the sixth time the freshman has reached double digits this season
- Bel Zimmerman surpassed 500 career kills
- Zimmerman’s 10 kills marked the ninth time she’s reached double digits this season
- Chelsey McCurdy recorded the 200th block of her Auburn career
- Alexis Dacosta (17 digs) reached double digits for the 11th time in 2024
What Crouch had to say
Opening statement…
“I think that’s a good team. They’re not unbeatable by any means but they’re good. We knew that coming in. Watching them on film, I thought they were going to be really tough. They made a nice adjustment in the second set. We had a serve target that we were all over. They took her out and it made it tougher on us. We just could not get them off the net enough to deal with the offense. They’ve got really good middles who can take rips. They’ve got really good opposites. They can set the middles from 10 feet off the net. They passed so well in the third set, I just told the team they have to serve tougher. If you miss, you miss.
“This was a great example of how important serving is. You have to be ok with missing some. We missed too many in the fourth set but that wasn’t the issue. We missed four or five but we got them in trouble. You just can’t make mistakes against a team that’s this good.”