The AU women’s volleyball team boasts an undefeated conference record in the Patriot League, but their loss to the George Washington Colonials Wednesday night proved that the Eagles are still not the most dominant team in the D.C. area.
The Colonials (16-7, 6-3) edged out AU (18-5, 9-0 PL) 3-2 in an evenly-fought, nail-biter match, ending the Eagles 14-game winning streak.
“They’re a good team,” head coach Barry Goldberg said. “They’re playing at a level back and forth, surviving every single match in their league to try and stay alive. It’s a good match for us in terms of trying to see if we’re a team ready to go forward and take the next steps for our program.”
The Eagles, who have cruised to victories against their recent conference opponents, struggled to match the strong defensive play of the Colonials, but they fought back-and-forth throughout the match. Neither GW nor AU led by more than five points during the first half of the game, and they split the first two set victories, 1-1.
The third set presented the only lopsided element of the night, and AU cruised to a comfortable 25-13 win. Junior outside hitter Sarah Katz recorded four kills during the set and totaled 15 kills for the entire match. Senior middle blocker Kelly McCaddin also exhibited a strong performance during the middle portion of the game, recording four kills in the third set as well.
“I feel like overall we had moments of awesome and moments of ‘woah, like we need to get it together a little bit,’ and obviously set three, we were really firing on all cylinders,” McCaddin said. “Obviously, then we had everything going.”
The Colonials, however, regained their prowess in the following set, and they evened the score with a 25-19 victory in the fourth set. GW carried their momentum into the fifth set where they held a 12-9 lead before AU junior outside hitter Allison Cappellino attempted to spur an Eagle comeback through her serves. She remained focused, despite the pressure of the game, and centered her attention on her task rather than the score.
“I didn’t even look at the scoreboard,” Cappellino said. “[I was] just taking it one play at a time, one point at a time.”
Cappellino earned two back-to-back points for AU, but the Eagles ultimately fell to the Colonials after a block from senior middle hitter Landon Garvik and sophomore middle blocker Chidima Osuchukwu at match point.
Rather than dwell on the loss, the Eagles remain concentrated on the future, and they hope to progress through the rest of their conference games with ease. AU will further test their strength against two conference opponents this weekend, with matches against Lafayette University on Friday and Bucknell University on Saturday.
Cappellino emphasized the importance of “attacking the rest of [the] season, and taking the Patriot League,” with hopes of advancing to the NCAA tournament. Goldberg, however, noted that the team needs to make improvements, if they strive for continued success.
“This was an indicator, and it said that we’re not ready yet to be sharp enough to take a team to do things that we’ve done last year and make new marks for our program,” he said. “We’re going to have to improve. We have our work cut out for us for the next three weeks here to see if we improve and can get another shot at the tournament through our league and see if we’re ready to go somewhere.”
sscovel@theeagleonline.com
