AUSTIN, Texas — Auburn volleyball suffered its fifth consecutive loss Friday, falling to No. 12 Texas in a three-set match, 25-22, 25-22, 25-18. The Tigers have now been swept in three of their last five matches.
The Tigers kept the first two sets close, losing 25-22 in both. Auburn swung at a .300 hitting clip in set one, with the offense firing on all cylinders. It seemed like everyone was getting involved in the action, with Lauren Dreves and Anastasia Ivkovic both finding a couple of kills while Kate Mansfield, Belle Patrick, and Grace Havlicek held it down at the net.
The Tigers kept the first two sets close, losing 25-22 in both. Auburn hit .300 in the opening set, with the offense firing on all cylinders. Lauren Dreves and Anastasia Ivkovic both found a couple of kills while Kate Mansfield, Belle Patrick, and Grace Havlicek held it down at the net.
Auburn led early in the second and third sets but could not maintain its momentum. Texas, however, found ways around the Auburn defense, posting a whopping .340 hitting percentage to win set one.
Set two was more of the same, with Auburn attacking well and spreading the ball around in their 6-2 system, while the Longhorns were more efficient with their opportunities to outlast the Tigers again. Auburn opened with a 7-1 run, but Texas rallied to take a 16-15 lead before closing out another 25-22 victory.
In set three, Auburn’s hitting percentage dipped below .200, and it managed only seven kills. Texas took advantage of the weak Auburn attack and used a 10-2 run to take the lead, finishing the set with a 5-1 run to win 25-18. Texas' Torrey Stafford recorded 10 kills in the final set, hitting .333.
Dreves led the way with nine kills, with Ivkovic adding seven and Patrick five. Texas’ Torrey Stafford put up 21 kills in the win, nearly outscoring Auburn's top three. Auburn stood out in the block, with Mansfield racking up five blocks and Havlicek and Emma Moore each knocking back four.
The five-match losing streak is the longest since the 2024 season, when Auburn started 14-2 before dropping 11 in a row to end the season. Despite this, head coach Brent Crouch is keeping his head up.
"It's good to see such an effort against such a strong program like Texas,” Crouch said. “We didn't have enough opportunities, which is a credit to Texas, but I liked what we did do with the chances we had.”
Auburn continues its road trip against the defending national champions, No. 19 Texas A&M, Sunday in College Station, where it will look to bounce back with a big second conference-match win of the season.
