Another Patriot League match for the women’s volleyball team, another three-set victory. The Eagles have won five straight Patriot League matches without dropping a set, dating back to the 2014 Patriot League Tournament. AU’s balanced attack buried the Army West Point Black Knights 25-15, 25-20, 25-14 Friday night in Bender Arena.
The Black Knights (10-6, 2-1 PL) entered play with sophomore middle blocker Carolyn Bockrath, the nation’s fifth most efficient attacker with a hitting percentage of .448. The Eagles (11-5, 3-0 PL), however, limited Bockrath to 10 kills and an hitting percentage of .250.
“We did a decent job of hanging in with her,” head coach Barry Goldberg said of the Eagles effectiveness limiting Backroth. “That’s a credit to Erin [Swartz], who played against her tonight, and Loren [McKenzie] and Carmen [Unzue] and our outside blockers.”
Senior outside hitter and reigning Molten Patriot League player of the week Allison Cappellino lead the Eagles offensively with nine kills, five digs and four aces. Senior outside hitter Sarah Katz also recorded nine kills for AU, and the Eagles had five players register four or more kills. Senior setter Monika Smidova had a game-high 31 assists for the Eagles.
“Splitting it up between pins, setting the ball to the right side and to the left side, helps us because it really splits up their block,” Cappellino said of the Eagles balanced attack. “It gives us more opportunities for one-on-ones. When we’re setting to different players it throws off their game a little bit and opens it up for us to get more hits.”
The Eagles and Black Knights opened the match in a tightly contested first set, with AU unable to create separation after taking an early lead. Army closed the lead to two at 14-12 before the Eagles went on a 11-3 scoring run to end the set sparked by four straight points on Cappellino’s serve.
The second set played out in a similar fashion, as neither team was able to hold a lead of larger than four points. The Black Knights lead initially before AU claimed its first lead at 13-12 after a kill from Katz. With the set level at 16 all, the Eagles used another late run to take nine of the final thirteen points to take a third set lead.
The Eagles opened the third set strong, taking an 8-2 lead and never letting the Black Knights closer than eight points. AU held Army to an attacking percentage of 0.030 in the third set.
“Army always comes back tough, whether it's the beginning of the game or off the break, so we always know to be ready,” Cappellino said. “I think we came out hungry for more and just wanted to finish it in three.”
The Eagles also utilized strong defense throughout, recording ten blocks as a team for the match and limiting the Black Knights to a hitting percentage of 0.151 for the match.
“It was a really good match for us,” Goldberg said. “We were really giving them a hard time with our stronger defense and it made it difficult for some of their hitters. That was the big difference for us today, we connected well with the hitting, but even better we made a good defensive effort to stop our opponent.”
With the victory, the Eagles remain the only unbeaten team in Patriot League play. AU has a quick turnaround, as it hosts Holy Cross Saturday Oct. 3 at 2:00 PM in Bender Arena.
