STARKVILLE, Miss. – In the span of two minutes of the second half, Auburn turned a close match into a blowout and opened its Southeastern Conference season with a 5-1 rout of Mississippi State on Friday.
Rebecca Howell and Stephanie Franoso each had a goal and an assist as Auburn improved to 4-2-3 overall.
“It’s opening night in the SEC, and you want to be 1-0 at the end of tonight because you stay in first place,” Auburn coach Karen Hoppa said. “We are thrilled about the result. The girls fought really hard through some rough conditions, which changed the way we played;. We played much more direct than we normally do because the field surface was so bad.”
Leading 3-1, Auburn put the match out of reach in the 65th minute as Howell took an Ana Cate feed and buried a shot to the opposite post from the top of the six for her third goal of the season and the 17th of her career. Two minutes later it was Chelsea Yauch posting her second goal of the season, finishing off a Howell pass to put Auburn up 5-1 with 22-plus minutes remaining.
“Caitlin got a good first touch and played Ana in," Howell said. "My main focus was to stay onsides, and Ana played a great ball slipped in between the center-back and the left-outside back and it was an easy finish."
WOMEN'S GOLF
Schepperle leads Tigers into lead
FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Senior Candace Schepperle birdied four of her final five holes Friday in the first round of the Mason Rudolph Championship, placing herself and the eighth-ranked Auburn women’s golf team in a tie for first place.
The Tigers finished the first 18 holes tied for first with Southern California at 10-under-par 278, the lowest first-round team score in tournament history. Schepperle ended the day in a tie for the individual lead at 6-under-par 66.
Hosted by Vanderbilt, the Mason Rudolph Championship is a 54-hole tournament being played at the par-72, 6,271-yard Vanderbilt Legends Club North Course. The three-day tournament features eight teams ranked in the GolfWorld top 10 and 13 ranked in the top 25.
After tallying eight birdies on the round, Schepperle tied her career-best score with a 6-under 66.
“I’m pretty excited," Auburn coach Kim Evans said. "Cydney and Candace showed up big-time for us today. We had some big birdies from a lot of people and had some big plays. It was a good team effort.”
VOLLEYBALL
Tigers can't hold off LSU in 3-0 loss
AUBURN – Freshman Sarah Bullock recorded a career-best 16 kills, but it was not enough as the Auburn volleyball team fell 3-0 (22-25, 20-25, 24-26) to LSU on Friday night.
LSU improved to 8-4 and 2-1. Auburn fell to 9-5 and 1-2 before a crowd of 1,215, the largest ever at the Student Activities Center.
“Our crowd was phenomenal, and they were very encouraging throughout
the match,” Auburn coach Wade Benson said., “The team was in it every set to win, and I think we just gave out at the end. It is a learning situation, and we’ll get through and get better next weekend.”
Other offensive leaders for Auburn were juniors Morgan Johns and Jonelle Wallace. Johns tallied 11 kills and finished with a .562 attack percentage, while Wallace recorded six kills with a .500 attack percentage. Junior libero Liz Crouch had a game-high 13 digs.
