Auburn volleyball season preview: Position-by-position breakdown for the Tigers entering fall practice

Here’s the outlook for Auburn at each position, an explainer of what each position does, and a breakdown of the players looking to contribute for the Tigers this season.

Auburn outside hitter Lauren Dreves gets to the ball during the team’s game against Mississippi State on Sept. 28, 2025, at Neville Arena in Auburn. (Noelle Iglesias/AU Athletics)

Lauren Dreves is an upperclassman now, entering her junior year at Auburn, and third season as starter. Named to the preseason All-SEC team on Wednesday, Dreves is in a lot of ways the centerpiece of this iteration of Auburn volleyball. She led Auburn in kills last season and, as Auburn’s top offensive option, she helped lead the Tigers to a top-third hitting percentage in the SEC last season. Her all-around ability has been crucial to keeping the Tigers in system when she’s rotated to the back row. A highly rated recruit from across the country in the Pacific Northwest, she’s been a central key to Auburn’s plans ever since stepping foot on campus.

But, as Auburn head coach Brent Crouch points out, she’s not alone.

“That’s a big class, and a lot of them are starting,” Crouch said, of the juniors that have grown up in the system along with Dreves.

In all, seven of the 17 players on Auburn’s roster are juniors this season. Dreves, Grace Havlicek and Emma Moore signed together and have come up together in college. Two more, Kate Mansfield and Belle Patrick, are transfers in, but they arrived in 2024 have been with the Tigers and their classmates for a while now.

Like Crouch says, several of them have started for Auburn and in all likelihood several of them will be starting for Auburn this season, which officially opens Aug. 28.

But as for how many, and which ones: That’s for the Auburn coaches and players to figure out together at preseason practices starting next week.

Players officially report on Tuesday, Aug. 4. Auburn has a preseason exhibition scheduled for Aug. 20 with Georgia Tech, and an intra-squad scrimmage open to the fans Aug. 16 in Neville Arena.

“We need to figure out a starting lineup. That’s No. 1,” Crouch said last week, as the summer period drew closer to its end. “We know how we want to play. It’ll be the same fast offense we did last year. Super fast. There’s no new things we’re doing schematically on the defensive side.

“It’ll be just trying to execute at the highest level. So it’ll just be a lot of not teaching, a lot more of just holding the standard.”

Auburn under Crouch has enjoyed its most NCAA Tournament appearances in its program history, making the dance in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Auburn entered the rebuild and with those current juniors as youngsters, spiraled to end the season. Last year, Auburn finished 7-8 in the SEC and firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble, seemingly one of the first teams out with a few bounces and breaks making the difference.

Now, that group’s grown up, and — teaming with a few experienced seniors, a crew of Power conference transfers, and youngsters eager to make an instant impact — the Tigers are eager to get back to the tournament and begin a new best-stretch-ever in program history.

Here’s the outlook for Auburn at each position, an explainer of what each position does, and a breakdown of the players looking to contribute for the Tigers this season:

Setter

Auburn setter Shanelle Puetz (23) sets during the team’s game against Oklahoma at the SEC Tournament on Nov. 22, 2025, at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Ga. (David Gray/AU Athletics)

College volleyball 101: Setter

The quarterback of the volleyball court, the setter gets the ball to the team’s best attackers, picking which attacker to get the ball to based on what the defense is doing, and aiming to precisely put the ball in the best position possible for the attacker to take their best swing — when a team is in system.

Teams want their setter getting the second touch of a possession, and — like a quarterback finding the open wide receiver — the setter sets the ball to the outside hitter, right-side hitter, middles or a back-row hitter to attack an open part of the court or a weak point in the opposing defense.

Senior Shanelle Puetz is Auburn’s returning starter at setter, and newcomer Carson Eickenloff transferred in during the offseason. Puetz averaged 5.53 assists per set last season while splitting playing time with Kalei Edson in the 6-2 scheme. Edson has since transferred to Houston.

Puetz would hold the upper hand on Eickenloff going into fall practice in a position battle, having been in Auburn’s system longer, but Auburn could do a couple of different things at setter: