Auburn volleyball eyes summer goals before fall begins
Here's a look at what Auburn volleyball hopes to accomplish in the summer months before the season starts in August.
The summer checklist for Auburn volleyball can be put pretty succinctly — though putting items on a list is always easier than doing them.
This upcoming season, Auburn will be looking to replace the production of departed senior Liz Markovska — an instant-impact standout for the Tigers last year who’s now on the coaching staff. That’ll top the to-do list for Auburn going into the regular-season opening ETSU tournament Aug. 28, and the preseason exhibition before that against Georgia Tech on Aug. 20 at home.
For the summer, in June and July, getting healthy is also on the docket.
And, for rising junior and team leader Lauren Dreves, so is plenty of voluntary work in the gym by the players.
“I think it’s just all about getting reps,” Dreves said, back after Auburn’s final exhibition of the spring, when asked what would be important for the team in the summer months. “It’s reps after reps after reps, you know? It’s about making what you’re good at better. So I think that’s what’s going to be really important in the gym, is just — you know, we may be good at attacking, we may be good at offense, but, like, we want it to be better. I think it’s just all about getting reps and making everything better.”
Auburn was close to getting back in the NCAA Tournament last year. The Tigers made the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and 2023 in some of their first years under Brent Crouch — marking only the program’s second and third trips to the tournament ever. After a rough year in 2024, Auburn was close to getting back in in 2025, finishing the regular season as one of the teams squarely on the bubble, and just missing out.
Auburn isn’t blowing anything up and plans to build on that near miss instead. The roster’s been built with Dreves as its centerpiece — and maintained by three power-conference signees out of the transfer portal — and these arms are competing to take some of swings Markovska took last year: