The AU women’s volleyball team found themselves in an unfamiliar position Friday night in Bender Arena, down 22-19 to Bucknell and in danger of losing their first set in Patriot League play this season. However, the Eagles rallied back, led by timely kills from senior outside hitter Allison Cappellino and senior setter Monika Smidova to take the first set 27-25 over the Bison.
The Eagles (18-6, 9-0 PL) won the second and third sets in a more straight-forward fashion, 25-16, 25-19 to remain unbeaten in Patriot League play and put their midweek nonconference loss to George Washington behind them.
“Bucknell came in here ready to play,” head coach Barry Goldberg said. “They’re in fifth place and looking to get in the top 4 [to qualify for the PL tournament], so we knew they were going to come in here and be loose, and they were. They served us tough, they dug a lot of balls, they hit the ball pretty well and it was a back and forth game. We were a little off balance, maybe even from the Wednesday night match [against GW], so we weren’t quite balanced and a little hesitant [at the beginning of the match].”
The Eagles faced additional adversity in the first set when sophomore middle blocker Erin Swartz, who leads the Patriot League in blocks per set, landed awkwardly near the net support after an attempted kill in the first set. Swartz limped off the court and did not return for the Eagles.
“We’re going to have Erin looked at,” Goldberg said. “Our trainer said we should keep her out [of the rest of the match] just to make sure. They [the trainers] said it was her knee, but we’ll have to see if it was a little sprain or something worse.”
With Swartz out, freshman middle blocker Carmen Unzue and sophomore middle blocker Loren McKenzie took on a bigger role for the rest of the match and recorded four kills each.
The Bison (10-10, 4-6 PL) matched AU early on, not allowing the Eagles to gain control of the first set and led AU by as many as four points in the early stages of the set. Goldberg utilized timeouts throughout the set when the Eagles trailed in an attempt to break up the Bison’s momentum. Bucknell held a 14-10 lead in the set before a Cappellino kill and four straight service points from Smidova gave the Eagles the lead in the set.
Cappellino finished the match with a game-high 13 kills and added seven digs, while Smidova recorded a double-double with 32 assists and 15 digs while also notching nine kills.
In both the second and third sets, AU jumped out to early large early leads behind efficient offensive hitting and relied on their defensive block to prevent the Bison from rallying. The Eagles never trailed in the later two sets.
AU cleaned up its play after the first set, recording only four errors in the second and third set combined, compared to six errors in the first set. The Eagles’ defense grew in the latter sets as well, holding the Bison to a hitting percentage of .144 while recording 11 blocks as a team while hitting .339 as a team for the match.
The Eagles will look to continue their perfect Patriot League season with a quick turnaround, facing Lafayette Saturday afternoon in Bender Arena.
