Building off the momentum from the previous night, the AU volleyball team pushed its winning streak to six after sweeping Lafayette College Nov. 2 at Bender Arena.
The victory over the Leopards also marks the Eagles’ eighth sweep of a Patriot League team.
The Eagles (24-2, 10-1, PL) focused on playing with energy and excitement, which showed in their match against the Leopards (10-14, 2-11, PL).
“I think that we played well,” senior setter Kylann Scheidt said. “Coach [Goldberg] has been trying to get us to have some passion and some fire and I think that we did that collectively as a team.”
With numerous wins and sweeps under their belt, the team also prioritized concentrating on their matches at hand.
“Coach also mentioned [to] pay attention throughout the entire match,” sophomore outside hitter Allison Cappellino said. “Not losing it here and there when we get down, kind of keeping consistent throughout the entire match.”
The Eagles’ consistency showed in the match as they averaged a hitting percentage of .508 throughout the entire match, with a .640 hitting percentage during the first set.
“I think as a collective team, we did awesome,” Cappellino added.
The Eagles’ dominance was evident in the first set. They gained an early 2-1 advantage that they maintained for the rest of the game. Six different players notched kills in AU’s 25-12 win, featuring 13-point lead that was AU’s largest lead of the game.
AU’s second set against Lafayette was more varied. The Eagles jumped to a 4-0 start, but allowed Lafayette to catch up, leading to a 8-8 tie between the two teams. The Eagles fought back, eventually going on an 8-0 run that had the Eagles up 24-12 and at set point. AU took the second set 25-14 on a kill by Cappellino.
The Eagles allowed the Bisons to keep up at the beginning of the third set. Neither team gained more than a two point advantage when the game was tied 5-5. AU then picked up the momentum and went on a 5-0 run, forcing Lafayette to take a timeout. The Eagles kept their lead for the rest of the match and won the game 25-18.
AU dominated the stat sheet. Cappellino had a game-high 14 kills and junior setter Monika Smidova was tied for a game-high 25 assists while junior libero Megan Rosberg had a game-high 10 digs.
Even with their continued success this season, the Eagles are concentrating on what they can do to maintain their tremendous performance.
“We have a tough couple of matches ahead of us, so just focusing in practice this week, keeping attentive to our play, and really keeping the play high and competitive in nature,” Cappellino said. “Just focusing on one match at a time and going at it with full attention.”
AU will face off against Norfolk State at Bender Arena on Nov. 5 before embarking on a two game road trip.
