The AU Volleyball team coasted to a 3-0 win over the Howard University Bison on Tuesday, in one of their more dominant performances of the season.
Their win against HU marked the first match that the Eagles have one in straight sets this season. AU set the tone for the match early, as they went on a run that gave them a 18-6 lead. The Eagles won the set by a huge margin, 25-12. In the first set, the disparity between the teams could be seen, as AU’s hitting percentage was .360 compared to Howard’s .034.
After such a dominant first set, AU got off to a surprisingly rough start in the second. Howard took an early 5-0 lead, capitalizing on some AU miscues. The Eagles would come all the way back to tie the set at 8, but Howard was not going to go away easily in this set.
HU kept the match close as AU only led the game 14-13 at about the halfway point of the match. It would take a string of errors from Howard and some kills by match leader Angelina Waterman, an AU junior who had 13 kills. It was enough to pull away from the Bison, giving AU a 20-13 lead. AU would take the set 25-20 after another kill from Waterman, but it was not the cleanest win of the match.
AU Head Coach Barry Goldberg said the differences in the first two games came down to errors.
“Hitting percentage was good in game one, not so much in game two,” Goldberg said. “It’s pretty simple; if you can make a lot of kills and not make too many errors, you have a high percentage.”
The third and final set of the match looked more like the second as AU struggled with errors, with a hitting percentage of only .211. For the first time in the match, Howard had a better hitting percentage, albeit a barely higher percentage of .212. Still, AU was able to overpower Howard with their strong junior outside hitters, Magdalena Tekiel and Waterman.
Overcoming their seven errors in the third set, AU was able to put Howard away with a score of 25-21 as junior outside hitter Katerina Cinkova got the final kill in the match. Cinkova and other players with less game-time experience this season got to play a larger role than normal on Tuesday.
“All these players, we’ve been using them in some of these big matches so we’re trying to get a feel for who we’re going to count on when it comes down to crunch time,” said Goldberg. “[Patriot] League starts in two weeks here. These are good opportunities for us to see who can do what when they get their opportunities to play.”
The Eagles will take on the UNC Tar Heels on Sunday Sept. 20 in a rematch of last year’s first round of the NCAA Tournament.
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
