The AU volleyball team rebounded from a loss to Army by taking down Holy Cross 3-1, improving their Patriot League record to 4-3.
Coming into the match, the Eagles were in danger of stretching their losing streak to three games. Another loss would be painful, especially since it was within the conference. Fortunately for the Eagles, they showed up Saturday to have one of their strongest matches of the season.
AU continued to improve their focus by reducing their errors and playing a cleaner game. The team had a season-high .403 hitting percentage, meaning they were able to keep the number of errors down while still recording a lot of kills.
AU, who fought for a strong first game victory over the Crusaders, set the tone early. It started out as a tight game with the score tied at 11, but AU pulled away when middle blocker Claire Recht put the team up. With this momentun, the team did not look back and they finished the first game with a 4-0 run, which included kills from Recht and junior outside hitters Angelina Waterman and Magdalena Tekiel. Another run of kills from the Eagles gave them a dominant 25-16 win.
The second game of the match proved much of the same as the first, when an early tie was broken. Again, the run was led by Recht and gave AU the lead they would hold onto for the rest of the game. AU’s capitalization on Holy Cross’ errors was the main reason for their set win. After a service error that gave AU an 18-13 lead, Angelina Waterman would collect two of her game-high 19 kills to bury the Crusaders. The lead was more than enough, as AU rolled to a 25-18 set win.
After a strong start from AU, the Crusaders answered by taking a close third set, 25-23. The third set clearly demonstrated why keeping errors down is the key to victory. AU had its most errors in the third set with five, while Holy Cross had just three. AU would hit for a .324 hitting percentage in the third set, their lowest of the match.
Despite the loss, AU returned to close out the match. AU had control nearly the entire fourth set as they held the lead after Angelina Waterman’s kill put them up 6-5. American would dominate the game as Magdalena Tekiel topped off her strong match with the winning kill. Tekiel finished the game with her second straight double-double, recording 18 kills and 17 digs.
AU returns home to Bender Arena for a matchup against Lehigh, who beat AU earlier this season, on Friday night at 7 p.m.
You can reach this staff writer at slindauer@theeagleonline.com.
