In the past, the situation was fairly routine for the AU volleyball team.
An Eagle setter would pop a pass along the net to the outside hitter, who would elevate and ready for the kill. But a split second later the attack would be repelled by the veritable wall of arms and hands on the other side of the net, rejecting the ball to the floor.
Point lost for AU, point gained for the Bad Guys.
But times are changing. The Eagles seem to finally have the blocking they once could have only dreamed of. That long-sought skill on the front line was obvious in their first two Patriot League matches at Bender Arena as they used an 18-6 blocking advantage in 3-0 wins over Bucknell (8-5, 1-1 PL) on Friday and Colgate (1-14, 0-2) on Saturday.
The wins extended AU's all-time conference record to 66-0. While neither opponent matched what AU (8-7, 2-0 PL) had faced the last two weeks against major conference teams, coach Barry Goldberg couldn't help being in high spirits over AU's front-line presence this weekend.
"The one area of our game in the past five or six years that has kept us away from winning in the NCAA tournament has been the blocking area," Goldberg said. "So I really believe that if we can continue to challenge and beat the teams in the Patriot League here and improve our blocking, I think we can have a shot."
A third of AU's blocks came from sophomore Christina Nash, who led the Eagles with three in each match. The setter did double duty on offense, running the attack behind her 51 assists.
Senior middle blocker Cutrina Biddulph amassed 32 kills while hitting over .600 in each match. She also erred just twice.
AU's had other support on the attack, but from a different person in each match. Freshman outside hitter Rubena Sukaj was electric as AU topped Bucknell, 30-18, 30-16, 30-24. She sliced 15 kills and hit .889 in the first game.
She was quieter the following afternoon when the Eagles pummeled Colgate, 30-20, 30-11, 30-15. Junior outside hitter Elizabeth Maloney seized that match, throwing down 14 kills with no mistakes while also aggressively serving for five aces. Further, she led the team defensively with 11 digs.
"I have my whole team there hitting the ball," Maloney said of her performance. "If I'm not playing good, somebody else will step up."
But while they may be complementary, Goldberg wants more consistency among hitters.
"Liz played great today, wasn't so great yesterday," he said. "Rubena was great yesterday, wasn't so great today. If we can keep them both going, we can compete with a lot of the teams"
But errors are the Eagles' primary adversary right now, and they forced some dangerous mistakes in both matches.
Colgate seemed ready to take the first game Saturday. The Red Raiders led from the start by as many as five points, moving ahead thanks to AU making seven of its 11 total errors early on. The Eagles finally went ahead, 16-15, on a Colgate error and were able to run the rest of the match.
The same thing happened the night before as Bucknell stemmed two AU comebacks in the third game. The Eagles again dropped seven of its 11 errors in that game and didn't take the lead for good until a kill by Maloney put them on top, 22-21.
AU's next mission comes at Navy on Tuesday. Until then, the Eagles will have to play a game of volleyball "Whack-A-Mole." Blocking is better than it's been in years, but the next step is regaining their hitting while minimizing mistakes.
"Now we're blocking better, but we're losing out in the hitting category," Goldberg said. "I think if we keep the hitting and blocking up there, if we dominate the net, that's what the best teams do"
