The nationally-ranked AU Volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season on Sept. 5 to a stronger, more physical Marquette University team in a 3-0 sweep at Bender Arena.
“They… went after us pretty good, and this was a tester for us to be more physical. We knew this was a physical team, and that’s why these teams are NCAA [bound], so it was a learning match for us,” head coach Barry Goldberg said.
Goldberg, who has coached at American for twenty-six years, watched his previously undefeated team fight hard in the first set but lose their confidence as the game progressed.
“They were hitting the ball harder than we were,” he said, “and as they saw holes in our blocks, [they] continued to hit harder and harder, and it built their confidence.”
The first set began tight, and neither team pulled away until Marquette found a rhythm with several solid blocks from senior right setter Lindsey Gosh and sophomore middle hitter Teal Schnurr.
AU junior outside hitter Allison Cappellino hit an early ace to bring some confidence to her team, but Marquette’s defense remained strong. The Golden Eagles continued to stop AU’s offensive efforts, and its dominant play at the net held off numerous kill efforts from AU senior outside hitter Kristyna Lindovska.
“They knew our better players were Lindovska and Allison Cappellino…and they went at those two pretty hard to make sure that they stopped [them],” Goldberg said.
After a brief timeout, Cappellino secured her second ace of the night and tried to rally her team, but the Eagles struggled to find continuity. AU capitalized on Marquette’s errors throughout the game, but they were overmatched at the net. Marquette sophomore outside hitter Autumn Bailey locked away the win in the first set with a final point and handled the Eagles its first set loss in five years with a score of 25.
“They were hitting the ball harder than we were,
and as they saw holes in our blocks, [they] continued to hit harder and harder, and it built their confidence.”
— head coach Barry Goldberg
AU returned to the second set with a fury; however its frenzy resulted in numerous errors that began from the first play. Cappellino’s first serve of the net sailed into the net, but the Eagles recovered and earned a kill on the next play from Lindovska.
Marquette followed with several points of its own, swinging the momentum away from AU. The Golden Eagles took the second set 25-19, and AU struggled to regain its rhythm, averaging a low .045 hitting percentage.
Despite nine kills from senior middle-blocker Kelly McCaddin and 10 assists from Cappellino and junior Monika Smidova, AU never achieved a hitting percentage above .111. They fell in the third set 25-16, the first loss for the team since the NCAA tournament last season.
“It was a learning match for us, and we’ll see what kind of response we have as we go back and have to play No. 7 Florida State in a couple of days,” Goldberg said.
The Eagles, no longer undefeated, return to Bender Arena on Sept. 7 to take on the Seminoles at 11 a.m.
