Special to pressbox1.com

Here is an update on volleyball in the Southeastern Conference:

ALABAMA Crimson Tide - Alabama picked up its first conference win Friday against rival Auburn with a score of 3-1 in front of a packed house at The CAVE. Despite losing the first set 20-25, the Crimson Tide battled back rolling over the Tigers in the next three sets 25-19, 25-15, 25-15. The match was Alabama’s best offensive effort of the season with the team knocking down 58 kills while hitting .398 percent. Junior outside hitter Brooks Webster had a career night positing 23 kills. She also tied her career best in assists with four and was one shy of her dig best with 16. Sophomore middle blocker Calli Johnson led the Tide blocking front with six. After setting a career-high seven kills against Tennessee last weekend, Lauren Martin set a new career-best with nine kills. She also distributed 38 assists. Alabama will continue its home stand this weekend when it faces Florida on Friday at 7:00 p.m. (CST) and South Carolina on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (CST).

ARKANSAS Razorbacks - The University of Arkansas dropped a pair of SEC matches this weekend to No. 10 Florida and South Carolina. Freshman Kelli Stipanovich paced Arkansas with 11 kills and a .292 hitting percentage against the Gators. She added a career-best 21 kills and tied her career-best with 11 digs against the Gamecocks. Arkansas had four players with double-digit kills and four in double-digit digs against South Carolina. SEC action continues for Arkansas as they travel to Georgia and LSU this weekend.

AUBURN Tigers - The Auburn volleyball team (5-10, 0-4 SEC) dropped a pair of matches last weekend on the team's first conference road trip of the 2008 season. Auburn fell 3-1 (25-20, 19-25, 15-25, 15-25) at in-state rival Alabama and 3-2 (14-25, 18-25, 25-19, 25-18, 13-15) at Mississippi State. Coincidentally, the outcomes were the exact same as the road meetings against the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide last season. On the road in 2007, Auburn won the first set at Alabama before losing the next three for the 3-1 loss. Also, against MSU, Auburn fell into a 0-2 deficit before rallying back in an eventual 3-2 loss. Senior Jessica Glover led Auburn in both matches, posting 12 kills and a .321 attack percentage at Alabama before a 15-kill, .324 attack percentage outing at Mississippi State. At Alabama, Olympia Haney finished second on the team with 11 kills and two blocks. Junior Kaitlin Simon led the defensive effort with nine digs. At MSU, Milena Bukinac was second on the team with six kills while posting a match-high 16 digs. Alyssa Davis also came up big for Auburn in the loss with four kills nad seven blocks. The Tigers continue their road swing this week as the team travels to Tennessee (7 p.m., Friday) and Kentucky (1:30 p.m., Sunday) for a pair of matches.

FLORIDA Gators -The No. 10 Gators posted a pair of road victories at Arkansas and Ole Miss this past weekend to improve their record to 10-1 overall, including a 4-0 mark in the Southeastern Conference. In Friday's 3-0 win against the Razorbacks, freshman right-side/setter Kelly Murphy became just the second player in school history - and the only freshman - to record a triple-double when she charted a career-high 15 kills on .619 hitting with 18 assists and a career-high 10 digs. On Sunday against the Rebels, redshirt freshman outside hitter/right-side Kristy Jaeckel led three Florida players who charted double-doubles in the match with a match-high 19 kills and a career-high-tying 11 digs. On the season, Jaeckel leads the Gators with 3.69 kills per set, while Murphy and Colleen Ward follow with 2.95 kills per set and 2.58 kills per set, respectively. Junior libero Elyse Cusack heads the team's defensive effort, averaging 4.38 digs per set, while also leading the team in service aces with 0.46. Florida returns to action this weekend when it travels to Alabama and Mississippi State for a pair of matches. The Gators and Crimson Tide square off at 8 p.m. EDT Friday in Tuscaloosa and UF meets the Bulldogs at 2:30 p.m. EDT Sunday in Starkville.

GEORGIA Bulldogs - The Georgia Bulldogs are two games into a five-game home stand and will play two more matches in that stretch this weekend at the Ramsey Student Center in Athens. The home stand began last weekend with the Bulldogs falling to the Kentucky Wildcats, 3-1, and to the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, 3-0. Senior Maria Taylor recorded 24 kills in those two matches to move her onto Georgia’s all-time top-10 list at ninth with 1,535 career kills. Taylor stands to move rapidly up the chart from here as she is just two kills away from eighth, 10 away from seventh and 30 from sixth. This weekend’s matches include contests with Arkansas and Ole Miss. Georgia will play Arkansas Friday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. ET and will play Ole Miss Sunday, Oct. 5 at 1:30 p.m. The home stand will conclude the following week on Wednesday, Oct. 8 against LSU at 7 p.m.

KENTUCKY Wildcats - With two road victories this weekend, the Kentucky volleyball team has secured a 4-0 start to SEC play for just the first time since 1996. UK returned home with a 3-1 victory over Georgia and an impressive 3-0 sweep of LSU. Kentucky’s defense was tremendous this weekend registering 21 total team blocks in their wins. Senior Queen Nzenwa led the way with 11 rejections on the weekend, while freshman Becky Pavan totaled seven to pace UK against LSU. Offensively, led by setter Sarah Rumely, five Wildcats averaged at least two kills per set and the team hit for a .284 clip. Rumely accounted for a kill per set, while hitting with a .538 percentage. The Blue and White will next take their 10-match winning streak to Tennessee on Wednesday. Kentucky then welcomes Auburn to Memorial Coliseum on Sunday.

LSU Tigers - The Tigers finally played their first home match of the year, winning in four games over Tennessee on Friday in front of nearly 1,000 fans. Four different Tigers had double-figure kills against the Lady Vols, including Kyna Washington and Brittnee Cooper who each had 15. Sam Dabbs had a season-best 53 assists while Elena Martinez collected a match-best 22 digs. The Tigers hit at a .268 clip while holding Tennessee to just .224. LSU had lost set one, but came back to win the next three. It was the eighth time the Tigers had lost the opening frame, and the fourth time they were able to come back and win. But the Tigers failed to keep the momentum, being swept by Kentucky at home on Sunday. They had several set points to force a game four, but Kentucky fought them all off and ended up winning the decisive set, 29-27. The Tigers fall to 6-5 (1-3 SEC) with the loss. Martinez's 16 digs led all competitors. No Tiger had double-digit kills, as Lauren DeGirolamo and Brittnee Cooper each had nine to lead LSU. The Tigers hit just .139 against the Wildcats. They are averaging just a .188 clip through 11 matches in 2008. The Tigers stay at home next weekend to play host to their first SEC West opponents in Ole Miss on Friday and Arkansas on Sunday. The match with the Razorbacks will be televised live by SEC-TV.

OLE MISS Rebels - Ole Miss picked up a weekend split with a 3-1 victory over South Carolina before falling 3-1 to No. 10 Florida on Sunday. The win over South Carolina was the fourth straight for the Rebels in the series and snapped a 10-match win streak for the Gamecocks, who were arguably the hottest team in the conference coming into the match. Junior right side Caitlin Weiss posted a season-high 15 kills against South Carolina to help lead the Rebels to the win. Weiss also passed 500 kills for her career against South Carolina. Sophomore MB Miranda Kitts had a big weekend for the Rebels as she tripled her season average for blocks with her play at the net. Kitts posted a career-high nine blocks against Florida including a career-high seven block assists. She also posted a career-high three block solos against South Carolina. Ole Miss out-blocked the Gators 13.0 to 7.0 on Sunday thanks in large part to the play of Kitts. Freshman MB Regina Thomas led the Rebel attack against Florida with 14 kills and a .458 attack percentage, while Kitts hit .375 with seven kills against the Gators. With the 3-1 loss to Florida, the Rebels took a set from the Gators for the first time since the 1994 season. The split put the Rebels in first place in the SEC West heading to pre-season Western Division favorite LSU this coming weekend. Ole Miss will face LSU at 7 p.m. on Friday night before traveling to take on Georgia at 12:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday.

MISSISSIPPI STATE Bulldogs - Mississippi State faces its stiffest challenges of the 2008 campaign this weekend when the Bulldogs (6-8, 1-2 SEC) play host to SEC Eastern Division foes South Carolina (11-2, 3-1 SEC) and Florida (10-1, 4-0 SEC) Friday and Sunday at the Newell-Grissom Building … State closed out its September schedule last weekend with a 3-2 win over Auburn in the Bulldogs’ only competition of the weekend. Junior outside hitter Ioana Demian, tops on the team with 145 kills and second in digs with 111, piled up a career-high 22 kills in the five-set win over the Tigers … Sophomore middle blocker Ashley Newsome matched a career-best with 13 kills and raised her season kills total to 98 as State registered its third consecutive win over Auburn. Ashley leads the team with a .223 attack percentage … State served up a season-high 12 aces against Auburn, a personal-best six by freshman outside hitter Leanna King. Mississippi State continues to lead the SEC in total aces with 91 … With her 10th of 12 digs against Auburn Sunday, junior setter Dorey Gray became the third Bulldog player to reach the century mark in digs this season (now with 101).

SOUTH CAROLINA Gamecocks - The Garnet and Black worked out a road split this weekend, dropping a 3-1 decision on Debate Night at Mississippi before rebounding with a five-set win at Arkansas. Redshirt senior Belita Salters led the squad in kills in both matches, averaging 3.75 kills per set while hitting .418 overall. Junior Ivana Kujundzic had double-doubles in both outings, while classmate Sarah Cline led the squad with 4.33 digs per frame. The Gamecocks still lead the league in digs overall, while they rank second in hitting percentage and kills per set. South Carolina now holds a 5-1 record overall against 2007 NCAA Tournament teams this season. The squad travels back to Magnolia State on Friday to face Mississippi State. On Sunday, the team will square off against Alabama.

TENNESSEE Lady Volunteers - The University of Tennessee volleyball team split a pair of matches in its first weekend on the road in Southeastern Conference play, falling in four sets to LSU on Friday in Baton Rouge, before sweeping Georgia on Sunday afternoon in Athens. Sophomore Nikki Fowler paced UT offensively in both contests with 19 kills against the Tigers and 13 versus the Bulldogs. She also recorded her team-high third double-double of the season and 14th of her career with 10 digs against UGA. Defensively, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Week, junior Chloe Goldman, continued her torrid pace, amassing 37 total digs in two matches, good for an average of 5.29 per set. The Monterey, Calif., native recorded 17 digs against LSU and 20 in just three sets at Georgia. UT’s victory over the Bulldogs marked its first conference road win on a Sunday in over two years. The last time it accomplished the feat was at Mississippi State on Sept. 24, 2006. The Big Orange will return to the hardwood this Wednesday when it welcomes border-rival Kentucky to Rocky Top for a 7 p.m. showdown at Thompson-Boling Arena. Following that contest, Auburn will make the trip to Knoxville for a 7 p.m. contest on Fri., Oct. 3.