If the Howard Lady Bison see AU volleyball players serving in their nightmares for the next couple days, you can't blame them.
On Tuesday night at Bender Arena, the Eagles had 19 aces, eight alone by junior Elizabeth Maloney, as the Eagles cruised past Howard, 3-0 (30-18, 30-10, 30-13).
"I started out slow serving, but then coach told us during the break to go for it and we did," Maloney said.
AU won the final seven points of the match, five coming from of Maloney aces. Rubena Sukaj also had five aces for the Eagles.
All three games had a consistent theme: Howard would get the first few points played, and then the Eagles would take over and dominate. In two of the three games, Howard had a negative shooting percentage.
"We tried a few new things tonight," said AU coach Barry Goldberg. "We played Cutrina [Biddulph] in the back tonight. She had a lot of kills there for us last year."
The Eagles victory was their fourth consecutive sweep. Previously the Eagles swept conference opponents Colgate and Bucknell on the road. The Eagles are now 18-8 and lead the Patriot League with a 9-1 record.
Along with her eight aces, Maloney added nine kills to the Eagles' victory. Chelsa Brooks led the trip. First they will take on Lafayette Friday night, and then they will take on Lehigh Saturday afternoon.
"If we can take the next two matches that sets us up for the big rematch against Army," coach Goldberg said.
In their final conference game, the Eagles will go against Army on November 5th. Army handed the Eagles their first ever Patriot League loss and snapped their 70 game conference win streak. Army defeated AU 3-0 at Army on October 8th.
"We really badly want to beat them," said Maloney. "I don't think words can describe how badly we want to win this game. But have three matches to win first."
If both Army and AU win out, then the game at Bender Arena on November 5th will determine the regular season PL champion.
