Nov. 21, 2008

Box Score

WASHINGTON - The American University volleyball team continued its pursuit for an eighth-consecutive Patriot League Championship on Friday, defeating Bucknell, 3-0 (25-8, 25-14, 25-17), in Bender Arena. The Eagles will take on the winner of the Army/Colgate semifinal on Saturday night at 8 p.m.

American (23-8) jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, but Bucknell answered with three straight points to tie the score up at 4-4. The Eagles went on a 10-1 run from there to take command of the match, leading 14-5. AU would go on to close out the match on another impressive run, outscoring the Bison 11-3 to take the first set 25-8. Rubena Sukaj had three kills to lead the Eagles. The American defense held Bucknell to a -.154 hitting percentage, while the Eagles hit .500.

Bucknell (13-18) was able to hang in the second match a while longer, tying the score at 6-6 on a Kaitlin Segal kill. American got a pair of kills by Rebecca Heath and Claire Recht to build an 8-6 lead and would never look back. The Eagles would only give up six more points in the entire set, winning 25-12, to take a 2-0 lead into the third. Heath led AU with six kills in the second set. The Eagles hit .542, while the Bison hit just .136.

The Eagles closed out the sweep in the third courtesy of a strong start. American jumped out to a 9-4 lead on a Claire Recht kill and Bucknell never got within five points the rest of the way out. The Eagles built their biggest lead of the set courtesy of a Bison attack error to lead by 11, 21-10. American got kills from Heath, Cassandra Rickets, Sukaj and Ann Recht down the stretch to take the 25-17 win.

Sukaj led the Eagles with 11 kills and Heath added 10 to round out the double-digit leaders for American. Christina Nash finished with 27 assists and Claire Recht tallied six assisted blocks.

Liz Hazuka had a team-high seven kills for Bucknell. Shannon Pitsch had seven assists and Pitsch and Segal tied for a team-high seven digs.