Oct 20, 2007
AU Gets Back to its Winning Ways with a 3-0 Victory Over Holy Cross
Oct. 20, 2007
WASHINGTON - The American University volleyball team avenged its first Patriot League loss of the season from the night before with a 3-0 win over Holy Cross Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Eagles improve to 16-7 overall and 8-1 in the conference, while the Crusaders fall to 3-20 overall and 0-9 in PL.
The Eagles out hit, out blocked and out served Holy Cross en route to game victories of 30-8, 30-23 and 30-23. For the match, AU hit .266 with 41 kills on 94 attempts and also recorded eight blocks and 15 aces. Holy Cross hit just .011 in the three games with 25 kills on 94 attempts and two blocks.
Chelsa Brooks was the high scorer for the Eagles, landing 10 kills, three blocks and one ace. Katerina Cinkova and Claire Recht each notched eight kills a piece. Recht also led the team on the blocking front, notching two solo and one assist. For the 17th time this season, Ivana Cebakova recorded double-digit digs with 15 and also had a match high four aces. Two other Eagles, Cassandra Ricketts and Rubena Sukaj, each had three aces.
In game one, AU rushed out of the starting gates and created an insurmountable lead early. With the edge at 9-5, Cebakova and Ricketts took turns on the serve and tallied six aces in the team's next eight points. From that point on it was all AU, taking the game 30-8.
The Crusaders kept the score close early in game two, down just one point at 7-6. Three of the next five plays resulted in Holy Cross errors though and AU took a 12-6 lead. American extended that lead to 18-10 with four different Eagles scoring in that stretch before they finally put the game out of reach and earning game point, 30-23.
American found itself on the wrong end of the score in game three, falling behind to the Crusaders 4-1. A Tara Stradling ace and a Recht kill knotted the game up at four though and the Eagles took off from there. Three straight aces by Sukaj gave AU a 10-5 lead which they would not relinquish, earning match point at 30-23.
The Eagles will be in action again Wednesday, Oct. 24, when they travel northeast to Baltimore, Md., to face the Morgan State Bears at 7 p.m. This will be American's first road trip since visiting Navy more than three weeks ago.
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