The AU volleyball team continued their winning ways last Thursday with a 3-0 victory against Navy, giving the team its fourth win in a row.
The Eagles defeated the Midshipmen 25-18, 25-14 and 25-12. With the win, AU extended its winning streak to four games, tying its longest of the season.
The Eagles have defeated their opponents by a combined score of 12-1 during the streak. Junior Angelina Waterman led the Eagles with 13 kills while senior Ann Recht registered seven block assists in the victory.
“We’re really getting a good grasp of our attacking and we certainly did a good job of shutting down Navy’s offense as well,” said Head Coach Barry Goldberg.
Navy came out of the gate strong, scoring the first three points of the first set. The Midshipmen led 12-9 until an AU timeout sparked the Eagles. After the timeout, AU went on an 11-1 run and took control of the set that would lead to a 25-18 win.
AU started off the next set poorly again, this time falling behind 4-1 early on. But the Eagles chipped away and scored four consecutive points three different times in the set. AU closed it out with three consecutive points. An attack error by Navy’s Maida Kalic gave the Eagles a 25-14 victory.
The third set was deadlocked 5-5 before AU scored five consecutive points and set their sights on their third straight shutout. The Eagles maintained a comfortable lead throughout the third set, as the Midshipmen never got within three points after the Eagles jumped out to a 10-5 advantage. With AU leading 18-12, the Eagles recorded seven straight points for an easy 25-12 victory. Back-to-back kills by Waterman and Recht ended the third set.
In addition to her 13 kills, Waterman added three block assists, four digs and one ace. Recht had nine kills and sported a .615 hitting percentage, while junior Magdalena Tekiel and Claire Recht both had six kills in the victory. Krysta Cicala had 30 assists to set up the offense.
On defense, junior outside hitter Cassandra Ricketts chipped in four block assists while Waterman added three. Senior libero Cynammon Burns finished with 13 digs with Ricketts and Waterman chipping in four apiece.
As a team, the Eagles finished the match with a .378 hitting percentage and recorded 39 kills against only eight errors. They held Navy to a -.023 hitting percentage and forced 23 Midshipmen errors.
With the win, AU improved to 13-11 on the year and 7-3 in Patriot League play. The team is currently in third place. The loss dropped Navy to 6-19 on the season and 1-9 in the League.
“Offensively and defensively, I think we did pretty well,” said Goldberg. “When we started to get the ball to the middle, the outside opened up a lot better and I thought it was a good combination.”
The Eagles will play host to both Holy Cross on Nov. 6 and Army on Nov. 7. The match against Army will be especially tough as the team is undefeated in conference play.
You can reach this writer at sports@theeagleonline.com.
