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- Bodda Getta Daily Brew 11/27: Dance Like Everyone's Watching
Bodda Getta Daily Brew 11/27: Dance Like Everyone's Watching
Auburn has earned back-to-back invitations to the NCAA Tournament, aka The Big Dance.
Bodda Getta Brew Crew
November 27, 2023
Good morning. For the first time in program history, Auburn Volleyball has earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons. The No. 7 seeded Tigers will face Western Michigan on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 3 p.m. CT in round one in the Louisville Regional.
Should Auburn advance to round two, the Tigers will face the winner of No. 7 Louisville and Wright State on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 6 p.m. CT.
"It's a big deal,” said head coach Brent Crouch. “We talked at the beginning of the year about can we do it again. Mostly what I meant by that was, can we play at the same level or better? Can we improve? And can we make it to the NCAA Tournament again? And we've done that.”
What else can you find mixed into today’s Brew?
🏈 A look at this year’s hard-fought Iron Bowl game
🏀 Women’s basketball is back, baby
🐅 And much, much more!
🎥 POSTGAME REACTION
“There's a lot of hurt in that locker room. Our kids gave themselves a chance to win the Iron Bowl and it's going to stick with us for a while.”
Go inside the postgame press conference with Coach Hugh Freeze after a hard-fought Iron Bowl that came down to the final seconds.
📈 STOCK UP
🔼 Bulldozed. Auburn regained its winning ways Sunday, leading from start to finish in a 68-45 victory over the Alabama A&M Bulldogs at Neville Arena—all without leading scorer Honesty Scott-Grayson, who's expected to return for Auburn's next game.
"I thought we came out, played hard, set the tone defensively in that first quarter, and that's what we wanted to do," Auburn coach Johnnie Harris. "We wanted to get back to pressing. We wanted to ignite the offense."
Auburn improved to 8-0 all-time against the Bulldogs, returning to form after back-to-back losses to California and Central Florida that followed three consecutive season-opening wins.
Fourteen Tigers participated with 10 scoring points, including Sydney Shaw's team-high 15, and 10 for Taylen Collins, who also grabbed 10 rebounds for her first Auburn double-double.
"She played tough, she stepped up," Harris said of Shaw. "She works hard in practice every day. It's good to see her being rewarded for that."
Auburn (4-2) remains at Neville Arena, hosting Clemson on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT in the ACC/SEC Challenge on SEC Network.
"It's a matchup we've been looking forward to," Harris said. "We'll have a good game plan together. We'll be ready."
🔼 Volleyball Gone Mad. Following a career-best sophomore campaign, outside hitter Madison Scheer has been named ALL-SEC.
Scheer was twice voted SEC Offensive Player of the Week for her efforts throughout this year, having finished up the 2023 regular season with career marks in kills (374), kills per set (3.34), points per set (3.60), hitting percentage (.262) and blocks per set (0.48). She became just the second Tiger in program history to win AVCA National Player of the Week on Oct. 10.
Sunday's award signifies the second time Scheer has picked up a postseason honor in her career. Last season, she was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.
🔼 From the Ground Up. Despite being two-touchdown underdogs, Auburn battled valiantly in the Iron Bowl, leading by four points in the final minute.
Thanks to tremendous performances on offense, defense and special teams, the Tigers led by four points until the final minute, but Alabama recovered a muffed punt return and scored on fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard-line with 32 seconds remaining to win the 88th Iron Bowl 27-24 Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
"I'm proud of the way our kids fought and prepared," Freeze said. "It makes the hurt that much more when you don't get it done. You tell them you love them and that they'll learn from it and get through it, but it's going to hurt, and there's no way around it. They're going to have to walk through the hurt."
"He was great all night," QB Payton Thorne said of Ja'Varrius Johnson, who scored two touchdowns and made four of Auburn's six receptions.
Alex McPherson got his 19th consecutive field goal, a 21-yarder, with 10:15 to play.
Jalen McLeod led Auburn with eight tackles, including one of the Tigers' five tackles for loss.
Auburn rushed for 244 yards on 42 attempts, an average of 5.8 yards per rush. Damari Alston added 85 yards and a touchdown on 10 rushes, and Thorne contributed 57 yards rushing on 15 carries.
"We knew we had to run the football to win this game," Freeze said. "I thought we ran well enough to win it."
Freeze also added, however, "We didn't play good enough in the critical moments."
One of the highlights of the game had to be when the Tigers evened the score by rushing for 68 yards on five plays, with Jarquez Hunter picking up a first down with an 11-yard gain and then racing to his right for 42 yards. Alston did the rest, picking up a first down before tying the score at 7-7 with a 4-yard touchdown run.
"You've got to bring it to them," said Hunter, who led Auburn with 93 yards rushing on 14 carries.
"We're building a foundation for next year," said Eugene Asante, who made five solo tackles.
Auburn (6-6, 3-5) will conclude the season in a bowl game and will learn its destination, date and opponent on Dec. 3 after next weekend's conference championship games.
Plenty went down while everyone was giving thanks - here are some more Brew headlines 👇🏼
A
🔼 A Razor-Thin Margin. Post-holiday sports for Auburn have been hard-fought battles, that’s for sure, and volleyball was no different. Head coach Brent Crouch and the Auburn Tigers (20-9, 10-8) did all they could, taking No. 9 Arkansas (25-5, 25-3) to extra points in the fifth set in front of a record crowd in Neville Arena the day after Thanksgiving. It was the Razorbacks, though, who managed to make a couple of plays late to steal the instant classic, 3-2 (21-25, 25-16, 19-25, 25-21, 17-15).
"Obviously, it was a nice step forward against Arkansas,” said Crouch. “The last three matches, I don't think we took a set off them. They're a really high-level team—a lot of seniors and grad students. They're ninth in the country for a reason. We made up some ground and had a chance there at the end."
Some Highlights:
The 2,711 fans in attendance marked the program record for Neville Arena. It's the second time this season Auburn has broken the attendance record, previously hosting 2,529 fans on Nov. 8 against Kentucky.
Auburn's 82 digs signaled a season-high for the Tigers.
With 15 team blocks, Auburn has now reached double digits for the 15th time this season and the fourth match in a row.
🤔 TIGER TRIVIA
In front of a raucous crowd inside Neville Arena on Wednesday evening, head volleyball coach Brent Crouch reached a significant amount of wins in his illustrious career as Auburn (20-8, 10-7) took care of business, 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-18) over Alabama (10-18, 0-17).
Today’s question—how many wins did Coach Crouch reach that Wednesday night, just before Thanksgiving?
Think you know the answer? Scroll down to the bottom to find out!
🐅 ONE BIG THING
Iron Will. Despite the devastating outcome of this year’s Iron Bowl, it’s still the greatest rivalry in football. And the fandemonium at Jordan-Hare was in full effect right to the very end.
📬 FORWARDED BY A FRIEND
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📅 THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday 11/27
(No Activities Scheduled)
Tuesday 11/28
(No Activities Scheduled)
Wednesday 11/29
🌊 Swimming & Diving @ ISCA
🏊🏻♀️ Swimming & Diving @ USA Diving Winter Nationals
🌊 Swimming & Diving vs. Auburn Long Course Invitational @ 10 a.m. CT
🏀 Men’s Basketball vs. Virginia Tech - ACC/SEC Challenge @ 8:15 p.m. CT on ESPN2 | Live Stats | Tickets
Thursday 11/30
🌊 Swimming & Diving @ ISCA
🏊🏻♀️ Swimming & Diving @ USA Diving Winter Nationals
Friday 12/1
(No Activities Scheduled)
Saturday 12/2
(No Activities Scheduled)
Sunday 12/3
(No Activities Scheduled)
🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER
Answer: 150!
Last season marked the beginning of Crouch’s significant improvements to Tigers volleyball, with Auburn earning a berth into the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history and the first since 2010. A first-round victory over host and No. 14 Creighton provided the program with its second postseason win and first triumph over a nationally-ranked opponent since 2017.
🐅 Have a great Monday, y’all!