Tide Volleyball Tops Auburn on Road for Season Sweep
11/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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AUBURN, Ala. - While a much closer match than earlier this year, the University of Alabama volleyball team still made it a clean sweep on Wednesday night handing rival Auburn a 3-0 (30-26, 30-17, 30-28) loss at the Student Activity Center.
The victory extended the Tide's win streak to 10 over the Tigers and marked Bama's 22nd straight over an in-state opponent. Alabama improved to 19-7 overall and 9-6 in the SEC while Auburn fell to 10-13, 5-10 in the SEC.
"It is always a great feeling to beat Auburn and it is even more impressive to do it on their home court," said UA head coach Judy Green. "I thought we played very well on offensive tonight especially with the addition of Crystal Hudson in the middle. I felt the real difference in the match was our ability to keep them out of system with our serving. I also thought we passed the ball extremely well especially late in game three."
The two rivals settled into a back-and-forth battle in game one with neither team holding more than a two point advantage for much of the frame. Bama fell behind 23-21 before making a late charge out-scoring the Tigers 9-3 to close out the opening stanza with a 30-26 win.
The Tide got things rolling early in game two jumping out to a 9-1 lead thanks to aggressive serving. Alabama earned a double-digit advantage moments later at 14-4 and cruised to an impressive 30-17 victory. The win moved UA's record to 21-5 in game two of matches this year.
Game three bore a striking similarity to the opening stanza with both teams taking their turns with the lead. There were five lead swaps and 11 ties during the frame with the last coming at 28-28. The Tide again rallied from a late deficit to earn the come-from-behind win by the score of 30-28.
Senior All-American candidate Erin Heffner led an impressive Tide offensive attack with 17 kills. Heffner now has 1,999 for her career and will have the chance to become only the third player in SEC history to record 2,000 kills with her first on Sunday against Kentucky.
Freshman Crystal Hudson had seven kills on the night and finished the match hitting at a .500 pace in her first career start and appearance at the middle blocker position. Fellow rookie Bridget Fuentez posted a career best 10 kills for the Tide.
Jessica Yearout tallied 17 digs to pace the Bama defense followed by 11 digs from Heffner, marking her 13th double-double of the year and the 50th of her career. Senior Farley shared team honors as the top blocker finishing with three block assists and pulling to within two of the school's all-time career lead.
Whitney Jacob's 11 kills topped the Tiger offense with Jelena Sekulic recording 12 digs to lead AU's defensive effort.
The Crimson Tide concludes the regular season portion of its schedule on Sunday with a home finale versus Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. in the CAVE. Alabama's senior trio of Erin Heffner, Julie Farley and Kory Tull will be honored with a post-match tribute and reception.
