The AU women's volleyball team received another first round exit in NCAA Tournament play, losing to Duke, 30-14, 30-16, and 30-16 in Lincoln, Neb., Thursday night.
After a fifth season winning the Patriot League title and qualifying for the NCAAs, the Eagles have been eliminated in the first round each time.
The Eagles came into the tournament with 25-9 record overall and were looking for their first ever NCAA victory. The Blue Devils had other plans.
AU had one of its worst shooting nights of the year, only hitting .075 overall in the game against Duke, which finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In the first game the Eagles shot -.080. Overall in the match the Eagles committed 16 errors to Duke's 10.
"This was not a great effort from us," coach Barry Goldberg told ncaasports.com after the loss. "We were a little off balance to start with. Duke played pretty well and took us out of our game. They didn't make a lot of errors and obviously we did."
Duke played near-perfect volleyball. In the three games, Duke shot .565, .500, and .465 respectively. The Eagles had a tough time defending the Duke attacks and setting up their own offense, making it easier for Duke to defend. The Eagles had only 17 digs while Duke had 43.
"Our defense hurt us most of all," Goldberg said. "Even when we did serve well, they'd pass the ball and they were able to hit a decent shot. We weren't able to counter with any defense to come back at them with. That was the difference."
Leading the Eagles was senior co-captain Cutrina Biddulph playing great in her final match. She led the Eagles with nine kills, no errors, and a .346 shooting percentage. Also playing in her last game was senior co-captain Jennifer Cosco with five defensive digs.
In the first game Duke jumped out to an 8-1 lead and AU never threatened.
In the second, Duke took an 8-2 lead, but AU closed the deficit to two at 13-11. The Blue Devils then went on a monster run winning 17 of the next 22 points and taking a 2-0 match lead.
The Eagles kept the third game close for a while, but then Duke went on a tear and killed any chance of a comeback.
"We've struggled early in just about every match we've been in at the NCAA Tournament," Goldberg said. "Usually as time went on, we would get into a little bit of a groove and come back in the second or third game to hang in there. But it didn't have as much capability to do that in this one. Duke was solid and they didn't make alot of errors"
