JACKSONVILLE – In an instant classic in front of a raucous crowd at the Pete Mathews Coliseum, Jacksonville State dropped a heartbreaker in five sets on Saturday night to undefeated Auburn to round out the 2022 JSU Invitational. Despite the setback, several Gamecocks had impressive outings against one of the Southeastern Conference's premier squads.
 
A young but talented Auburn squad took the first two sets with relative ease. The Tigers hit .469 in the opening set to take a 25-19 frame, then downed the Gamecocks 25-20 in the second after allowing JSU to register just nine kills in the entire set.
 
"The first two sets we were a little bit timid," Jacksonville State volleyball head coach Todd Garvey said following the loss. "I think that they wanted to win too badly for the crowd and weren't playing aggressively and it showed.
 
"In the third set, we were a lot more aggressive," Garvey said. "I told them, 'I don't care if we make errors, we've just got to come at them more and be more aggressive.' Even though we missed a lot of serves in the third set, I thought that we were playing a lot looser and freer offensively, and we're at our best when we do that."
 
Their uptick in aggression led to an exhilarating third set. The smothering Gamecock defense held the Tigers to just a .067 hit percentage, and a massive 8-1 run midway through the frame helped JSU claim a 25-19 triumph.
 
Jacksonville State kept their momentum rolling in the fourth set, but Auburn would not go away easily. A tit-for-tat fourth saw the visiting Tigers take a 21-19 advantage late before a timeout calmed down the Gamecocks. After Garvey's discussion with his squad, JSU went on to outscore Auburn 6-2 in crunch time to force a decisive fifth set. 
 
The Gamecocks raced out to an 8-7 lead in the fifth set, but as the two teams swapped sides on the floor, so did the momentum. Auburn rallied to end the set on an 8-3 run, downing Jacksonville State 15-11 and taking the entertaining match in five. 
 
"I'm really happy with the team on how we competed in the third, fourth, and fifth sets," Garvey said. "The fifth set could've gone either way; they got a couple good breaks when they needed to, and I think that was the difference. However, you've got to give credit to Auburn, they played extremely well and deserved the win."
 
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Courtney Glotzbach led the team with 16 kills, hit .538, and finished with 12 digs versus the Tigers. Her kill output marks a new season-high for the New Albany, Ind., native, and tallies her best outing in that statistic since her freshman season in 2020.
 
"(Courtney) did an awesome job," Garvey said. "She's been practicing middle for the past week and a half, so we haven't been able to practice her on the outside like we typically do. Zoe (Gonzales) hasn't practiced in a while, and obviously we wish everyone would've been healthy so we could've been clicking on all cylinders tonight."
 
Additionally, graduate transfer setter Claire Ochs had another mind-blowing performance at the Pete Mathews Coliseum. Less than 24 hours after netting 49 assists against Southern Miss, the former Southeast Missouri State standout had 51 assists against Auburn. Ochs' outing was her best assist-wise since finishing with the same amount against Murray State as a Redhawk on Nov. 19, 2021.
 
"(Claire) is just a competitor," Garvey said. "She's one of those people that you hate coaching against. I know that from experience, because I used to have to coach against her, so it's great to have her on our side. She's just a fierce competitor, very smart, and does an awesome job setting for us."
 
As for other standout performances, fifth-year outside hitter Lena Kindermann had 14 kills, four digs, and three blocks for the Gamecocks. Kindermann reached a huge milestone in the loss as well, as she became the third player in program history to reach 1500 kills. Graduate transfer Sophie Riemersma added 11 kills, six digs, and four blocks and fifth-year middle blocker Katie Montgomery finished with seven blocks and seven kills against an extremely tall front row for the Tigers. Behind Glotzbach's 12 digs, sophomore Brooklyn Schiffli had nine while seniors Erin Carmichael and Kylee Quigley tallied seven each.
 
The Pete Mathews Coliseum was electric for the Saturday nightcap against Auburn. That battle between two of the nation's eight unbeaten squads brought forth a crowd of 1,256 onto the campus of Jacksonville State University. The JSU faithful in attendance made a plethora of noise down the stretch of that tight showdown, helping the Gamecocks to feed off that energy and keep their momentum rolling.
 
"That environment was unbelievable," Garvey said. "That's the loudest I've ever heard the Pete. I've been to a lot of events here and that's the loudest I've ever heard it. And I think that's why our girls are so crushed- they wanted to win for the fans but came up just a little bit short. The fans at least saw how hard we competed and saw how fun that atmosphere can be. I can't thank the fans and student body enough for their support, and I'm glad our players got to experience that."
 
Jacksonville State wraps up non-conference play with a 12-1 record on the season and now fully turn their attention toward the ASUN slate. The Gamecocks remain at home next Friday and Saturday, in which they will host Central Arkansas and North Alabama respectively.
 
"I think the sky's the limit for us," Garvey said. "We've still got to keep working and getting better. I think tonight helped us get better because we're going to be in situations where we're down. We've got to learn how to fight back, so I think this helped. There's still so much we can get better at, though, which is a good thing, because we still haven't peaked."