The American University volleyball team (19-4, 9-2) defeated the Colgate Raiders (12-10, 9-2) in thrilling five-set fashion on Oct. 26 in Bender Arena.
Both teams came into the match on a five-game win streak, sitting next to each other in the Patriot League standings. If American lost, it would be nearly impossible to earn the #1 seed, a spot currently held by Colgate, which they sought to keep.
Colgate began the match in control, but American fought back, setting the tone for the rest of the match. Both teams had to fight hard for every point, rallies lasting multiple series on both sides of the net before a point was scored. American found two huge blocks early in this first set, denying points from one of Colgate’s star outside hitters, sophomore Milan Bayless.
After those blocks, Colgate fought back, getting Bayless the ball for two back-to-back kills that sent American reeling. The Eagles won the following point, but senior setter Esma Sipahi injured her right wrist after diving for the ball. Play stopped for a moment as American’s medical team wrapped up Sipahi’s wrist, then she returned to play, going forward through the rest of the match.
How did Sipahi respond? A setter dunk for an Eagles point on the very next opportunity, followed by two more points to increase American’s lead.
Colgate found their fight to continue the set, cutting their deficit down to 2 later on, but never getting lower than that. An ace from Sipahi put American up 1-0 early with a set score of 25-20.
The next set went down very much like the first: small runs with a very tight score throughout, and major offense from both sides coming in. The lead changed hands four times in this set, and the score was tied up on 10 separate times. Shadwick and Bayless made up most of Colgate’s offense for the set, while American relied on sophomore outside hitter Zedo Yilmaz and aces to keep them in the set. Colgate’s offense was too much for the Eagles to handle at the end, dropping the set 25-22 and tying the match score at 1.
American took the third set without much fuss, scoring 13 of their 25 points off of kills: five from Yilmaz, four from senior middle blocker Lilou Stegeman, a dunk from Sipahi, a forced block error from freshman middle blocker Elise Sterling and two more kills tacked on from junior outside hitter Adelina Berisha. The Eagles took the set 25-19, going up 2-1 over the Raiders and hoping to seal the match in four sets against a mighty opponent.
Colgate fought through the fourth set like their Patriot League standing depended upon it, firing off some high velocity kills to give them an early 7-1 lead. American fought back into the match though, cutting their deficit to 3 points before Sipahi came up injured again after a play. This time, she favored her right pinky finger, but returned to play after getting it wrapped. She responded to an injury in the game once before, and did it again, rattling off a dunk and two aces in the three points that followed to tie the set at 17.
After this point in the set, there were 11 more ties and two lead changes as the set went to extra points. Neither team were able to get onto a run, or get a perfect hit off. Two kills from graduate student outside hitter Abby Shadwick were enough to send the match to its fifth set, the Raiders taking the fourth 30-28.
Early in the fifth set, Berisha and Bayless traded runs of three kills each, forcing timeouts from both sides of the net to talk the game over. The fifth set went to extra points as well, seeing 12 ties throughout. A kill from sophomore outside hitter Sofia Osterdahl and an attack error from Colgate were enough to seal the match and the standings-shaking Patriot League win for the Eagles, winning 19-17, 3-2.
“We never gave up,” Sipahi said after the match. “We knew whoever gave up less errors was going to win, and that turned out to be us.”
Sipahi totaled nine kills, five aces and 54 assists on the day.
“Our backline allows me to help the rest of my team, while also being a threat at the net,” Sipahi said about her performance for the day.
Yilmaz led the team in kills with 19, followed closely behind by Berisha with 18. Sipahi’s 54 assists led the team, the next closest being Yilmaz with six. The Eagles posted 18 blocks on the day, Stegeman leading the team with eight. Freshman libero Bella Marrero led the team in digs with 19, followed by Yilmaz with 13.
Eagles head coach Ahen Kim was ecstatic after the game and proud of his team for their performance.
“We executed our scout very well, they had to make changes. We learned from our losses coming into this match and got better,” Kim said.
American’s upcoming schedule holds another test, a road trip against now league-leading Bucknell on Nov. 2 after a road match against the Lafayette Leopards on Nov. 1.
“The top part of the league is all good arms and good players. We lack nothing in winning the next challenge in front of us, we just have to win on the margins,” Kim said about the team’s upcoming schedule.
After the road tilts against Lafayette and Bucknell, the Eagles return home for the last games of their regular season, first playing Loyola Maryland on Nov. 8.
This article was edited by Penelope Jennings, Delaney Hoke and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks.
