AUBURN, Ala. – The Samford University volleyball team ended a marathon day with a 3-1 (17-25, 25-19, 20-25, 13-25) defeat to Auburn University in the final match of the War Eagle Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 29^th, inside Auburn Arena.

The Bulldogs (1-2) picked up a 3-0 victory over Stephen F. Austin 10 hours earlier in the day at 9:30 a.m. before taking on the host Tigers long after the sun had set.
With the lights on and the cameras rolling, Samford came out of the gate a little sluggish which allowed Auburn to race out to a 6-0 lead that the Bulldogs could not recover from.

Senior Emily Meitz and redshirt sophomore T.J. Russell got the Bulldogs back on track fueled the offense in the second set for the Bulldogs as the duo combined for a total of eight kills on 11 attacks with no errors. SU won its only set of the match 25-19.

After the intermission Samford and Auburn battle for control of the match in the third set with 15 ties and seven lead changes. The Bulldogs stood toe-to-toe with the Tigers but Auburn hit an astounding .405 in the set thanks to Breanna Barksdale who tallied seven kills (.636) with no errors.

From there it was all Auburn as the Tigers sealed the match with a 25-13 decision in the fourth set.

Meitz was the most efficient attacker for the Bulldogs going 9-for-16 (.438) with four total blocks. Russell followed up Meitz with eight kills and a spot on the War Eagle Invitational All-Tournament Team.

Samford returns to action with a solo match against Tennessee State University on Saturday, Sept. 5, at noon.