Volleyball Heads To Jacksonville State For First Road Match - AuburnTigers.com

Volleyball Heads To Jacksonville State For First Road Match Action set to begin at 7 p.m., Tuesday at JSU's Pete Mathews Coliseum

Sept. 1, 2008

AUBURN - The Auburn volleyball team (0-3) returns to action Tuesday as the Tigers travel up the road to Jacksonville State (1-2) for a 7 p.m. match. The meeting is the first road match of the season for the Tigers.

Auburn is coming off a 0-3 outing last weekend at the War Eagle Invitational. The freshman/sophomore-dominated team, under the direction of first-year head coach Wade Benson, lost to Samford (3-0), Mercer (3-1) and New Orleans (3-0).

"We are a very young team right now and at this point we are not completely focused on wins and losses," said Benson. "Our focus is more on learning and looking for improvements out of the team and I really believe that we got a lot of that last weekend. We made some mistakes, but we were able to get back into the gym today, look at some film and talk about those areas that need some work."

JSU kicked off its season last weekend at the IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational in Indianapolis, Ind. The Gamecocks lost to Tulsa (3-0) and IUPUI (3-1) before earning their first win of the season in a 3-0 decision against Evansville.

The match between Auburn and Jacksonville State will be the fifth all-time with Auburn holding a 4-0 series advantage. The last meeting resulted in a 3-2 Tiger win at the 2003 War Eagle Invitational.

After starting off at home, Benson says he is excited to get his team on the road for some matches.

"We have a very young team this year with 13 freshmen and sophomores," said Benson. "It was great last weekend in that we were able to get a comfortable start at home, but now it is time to throw another element at them as we go on the road."

Benson utilized his young players quite a bit over the weekend, going with three different starting lineups in the three matches. Eleven different players started a match and all 16 o the roster saw playing time. Of the 11 starters, eight were either freshmen or sophomores.

"Youth and inexperience is a big hurdle for us right now, but we have been able to work a lot of different people into the playing rotation and that will only help us down the road," said Benson.

Action against Jacksonville State is set to begin at 7 p.m., Tuesday at JSU's Pete Mathews Coliseum. Fans can follow all the action with live stats and a video Webcast at www.JSUGamecockSports.com.