AU’s volleyball team looked to finish up an inconsistent non-conference schedule with a win against the College of William and Mary, but the Tribe seemed to have an answer for every American rally.
Although the stat sheet shows a fairly even kill count by both teams throughout the four sets, American was out blocked 21-2.
“We hit the ball into their blocks, we continued to attack balls straight at them,” said Coach Barry Goldberg. “We didn’t have enough vision to see a block and hit to a different part of the court and that’s how smaller teams can end up blocking bigger teams, they hit around our blocks.”
The loss gives AU a losing record of 9-10, something that the eight-time Patriot League Champions are not used to. That said, however, the players believe it is not too late to turn the season around.
“[Our record is] not up to par with what we were expecting, but we’re learning from our losses and celebrating our wins,” said junior hitter Angelina Waterman. “Obviously no team wants to have a losing record, but hopefully the rest of the season will change that.”
William and Mary set the tone of the match early in the first set. They outscored American 25-16, in large part due to AU’s inability to put together clean sets. The sloppy play often led to scramble situations and weak returns.
AU appeared to be more determined in the second set and mounted an impressive comeback attempt after being down 16-24. They scored three straight points to close the gap, but it was not enough, as William and Mary went on to win 25-19.
“I think in the first two games we made a lot of mistakes, which made us lose the set,” junior hitter Magdalena Tekiel said. “We were not effective in hitting and we kept making the same mistakes.”
The third set showed some of the reason why this team has won eight league titles in a row. After playing even with William and Mary through the first 15 points, the Eagles broke the set open by winning nine of the next 11 points and winning the set 25-17.
AU’s sets and digs were much cleaner than the first two games, which allowed American to connect on its kills and stop William and Mary’s momentum for the time being.
American came out strong in the final set and stayed within striking distance of William and Mary throughout the match. It was not enough, however, as American committed six costly unforced errors and the Tribe took the set 25-20 to close out the match.
“Unforced errors are based on individual mental mistakes,” said Tekiel. “Each of us needs to work on it individually to get better.”
Goldberg is taking the loss as a lesson on the team’s mental fortitude.
“We need to find our identity,” he said. “Right now the identity of our team is as soon as there starts to be a little pressure, we back off.”
As for the final nine Patriot League games of the season, Goldberg said his team better start growing more of a backbone.
“The rest of the matches here on out are all conference matches and every team we play is coming after [us],” he said. “Unless we start getting tough, we’re just going to be weak student athletes.”
AU falls to 9-10 on the season and plays their next game Friday against their conference rival the Army Black Knights in West Point.
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
