The Auburn Tigers are suffering though one of their worst seasons under head coach Rick Nold. The Tigers are dead last in the SEC with a 1-7 record and they are 8-10 overall. To make things worse, the Tigers got swept by Texas A&M, Alabama and LSU in the past few weeks. So what is the problem? It could be that the Tigers are a very young team.
There are five sophomores and freshman combined on this year's team and it seems to be taking its toll on the season, although Coach Nold thinks that despite the growing pains the team is going through, experience is going to benefit this team eventually.
Coach Nold talked about this after the Tigers were swept at LSU. "We had some very good moments in this match with members of our young squad getting some valuable experience," he told the Auburn Tigers. "This is a tough conference and we've been on the road a lot to start the SEC season. We just need to continue to learn from every opportunity and take that into the next week."
So where does the team go from here? Well, there is not much that can be done other than deal with the growing pains and hope that the younger players learn quickly on the job. Freshman Tatum Shipes seems to be one of the bright spots for the team this year.
In their loss to LSU, freshman Tatum Shipes had a career-best 10 kills for Auburn and freshman setter Mica Allison led the squad with 31 assists. So, all is not lost for this squad. There is hope for the future with this squad,it is just a matter of them continuing to get experience and continue to get better.
Fans may not see results of their hard work this year, but in coming years, the question will be, will Auburn fans be patient?
