Not even a Washington, D.C., collegiate volleyball attendance record could help AU to its first win, as the George Washington University Colonials out-killed the Eagles 62-43 Friday en route to a 3-1 victory over AU.
“They got more kills than we did, the storyline of the game is their 62 kills and our 43 kills,” Head Coach Barry Goldberg said. “They continued to keep pounding the ball at us, and we didn’t continue to pound it back in the same way.”
The Eagles (1-1) looked to feed off a Bender Arena crowd of 2,122 that attended the fifth annual Bender Blue Out, part of the D.C. Volleyball Challenge. But GW controlled the net in a close first set with 13 ties and two lead changes that saw the Colonials prevail 30-28 on a Lauren Whyte kill to take a 1-0 lead.
Sophomore Juliana Crum and a new-faced Eagles team of eight freshmen then fought back to win the second set 25-22 and even the game at one apiece.
But GW’s Whyte, who led all players with 19 kills, helped the Colonial attack earn the victory despite freshman Sara Rishell’s 14 kills and sophomore transfer Morgan Hendrix’s 13 for the Eagles.
“I think [George Washington] wore us down a little bit; you could see by the end of game there they kept popping it at us and we didn’t respond to that,” Goldberg said. “These are experienced players that are conditioned for knowing what it takes to get through some of these longer matches, and we’re going to learn those things and get better, but overall, I think there were a lot of positives in today. It’s things we can take and get better on.”
The Eagles won the second match of the D.C. Volleyball Challenge Saturday when they defeated Georgetown University 3-1 to pick up their season’s first win. Crum, Alexandra Hammer and Monika Smidova each recorded a double-double to lead the AU squad to victory.
Despite being out-killed 62-53 Saturday, the Eagles won with set scores of 25-22, 27-25, 23-25 and 25-22.
Rishell finished with another 14-kill performance, as Crum and Hendrix led the team with 15 kills apiece. Hammer recorded 25 assists, as well as a career-high three service aces.
After ending the weekend at 1-1, Goldberg sees the D.C. Volleyball Challenge as more of a learning curve for a young team than just two games.
“It’s not good to get it out of the way, it’s actually good to compete,” Goldberg said. “A lot of good teams are playing early and our team is going to learn how to battle one way or the other.”
Due to Hurricane Irene, AU’s final match of the challenge against the George Mason University Patriots was postponed to Wednesday, Sept. 14. The Eagles will return to the court at home Wednesday, Aug. 31 to face the University of Oregon Ducks at 7:00 p.m.
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