Auburn, Ala. - The Auburn Tigers Volleyball team made easy work of the Jackson State Tigers tonight in their 3-0 Victory in Neville Arena.
Both teams started the game off hot. Jackson State gave Auburn a rough start in the first set of the match when it went up by three, setting the tone and making sure it wouldn't be an easy match for Auburn. However, Auburn quickly responded, coming back with a hot streak of their own and scoring five straight to put the score at 8-7 in set one.
Jackson State stayed in the fight and would go back and forth with the Auburn, hanging around until the end of the first set. But, the Tigers were put in a position to end the Jackson State comeback thanks to Liz Markovska, who dominated offensively tonight with 11 kills of her own. Behind Markovska, Auburn broke away and won the set 25-18 to lead the match 1-0.
“We’ve played a lot of games this last week, and I think our main goal was to keep sending it, hitting high, hard, and deep every single ball, and not getting greedy, tryna hit down, that’s basically it,” Markovska said.
The second set was a lot of the same, with a back-and-forth battle from both Auburn and Jackson State, with each side scoring a point until Jackson State took its first lead of the match at 18-17.
Auburn and Jackson State matched point for point up until the end of the set, when Auburn’s Kalei Edson rattled off two consecutive aces, sending Auburn on a small run to put the score at 24-20. Auburn ended the set 25-21 and took a 2-0 lead in the match after Lauren Dreves recorded a kill off an assist from Edson.
The late Auburn run seemed to sap Jackson State’s attitude and drive seem to have declined after their set loss as set 3 starts. Auburn capitalized on the momentum to secure the sweep of Jackson State in the last set with the help of Grace Havlicek’s hat-trick of aces, Dreves’ 12 kills, Markovska’s 11 kills, and help from Eden Bower who recorded 6 out of the team’s 9 blocks.
Auburn will look to continue its now 4-game win streak as it hosts Virginia on Monday as a part of the SEC-ACC Showdown at the Net. That game will be at 5:30 PM and will be broadcast on SECN+ and WEGL 91.1FM.
