The AU women’s volleyball team cruised past the Naval Academy Nov. 5 at the Wesley Brown Fieldhouse in Annapolis, Maryland to remain undefeated in Patriot League play.
The Midshipmen took the first set before the Eagles found their stride and closed out the match by taking the next three sets (23-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-8).
Junior outside hitter Allison Cappellino led the Eagles in scoring with a total of 17 kills and two service aces. Senior middle blocker Kelly McCadden recorded 11 kills, and junior outside hitter Sarah Katz added nine of her own. Freshman middle blocker Erin Swartz chipped in with eight kills to take down a Navy team that entered the game having won seven of its last 10 matches.
The Eagles (21-5, 12-0 PL) committed eight errors in an uncharacteristically sloppy first set, and the Midshipmen (11-11, 8-5 PL) took advantage of the opportunity and came away with the first set, marking the fourth time AU has lost a set in league play this season.
“We knew that Navy would come out tonight on their home court ready to battle a big match,” Cappellino said. “I think that we were a little inconsistent early on in the match but we fought and pulled together a good team effort for the win.”
The second set started competitively until the Eagles pulled away with an impressive 10-0 scoring run.
AU strung together a similar 12-0 run in the fourth set to close out the match.
Senior setter Monika Smidova served for the Eagles during both runs and finished the match with two service aces, 43 assists and 10 digs. Smidova eclipsed 1000 career digs in the match, becoming only the fifth player in team history to reach that mark.
After an evenly-fought first half of the match, the Midshipmen fought hard to stay with the Eagles in the third set. AU led 19-17 before scoring six straight points with freshman setter Hoakalei Dawson at the service line to close out the set. The Eagles dominated the fourth and final set of the match to notch their 12th straight Patriot League victory.
"We battled Navy well early in the first set, but ended up making a few costly errors as Navy's block ended up being the difference late in the set," AU head coach Barry Goldberg said. "From there we rebounded well, as our serve and attack began to take control. The final outcome was a hard-fought victory on the road.”
