WASHINGTON
Box Score
Dec. 5, 2008 - The American University
volleyball fell to North Carolina on Friday night, 3-0, in the 2008
NCAA Volleyball Tournament First Round in front of 1,252 fans in
Bender Arena. The Eagles were led by Rubena Sukaj, who
totaled 18 kills, Christina Nash,
who tallied 25 assists, and Ivana Cebakova,
who notched 16 digs.
"I think we may have been a little excited playing at home
tonight," Head Coach Barry Goldberg
said. "We saw a little bit of that even in warm-ups. Overall we
just didn't have a good motion for our team. There are no excuses,
but we just didn't look like we did earlier in the year."
American (24-9, 13-1) dropped the match by set scores of 25-16,
25-17 and 25-17. The Eagles picked up an early 2-0 lead in the
first set on a Sukaj kill and Tar Heel attack error. UNC (22-10)
would come charging back however and overtook AU, 5-4, before using
a 4-0 run to go ahead by five, 10-5. American attempted to chip
away at the lead and got to within three points of UNC, 10-7, off
consecutive kills from Cassandra
Ricketts and Claire Recht, but
would get no closer through the remainder of the set. The Tar Heels
extended their to as many as eight points, 23-15, before taking set
point by a nine point margin, 25-16.
American fell behind by eight to start the second set, 10-2,
after a 7-2 Tar Heel run and trailed by as many as nine, 15-6, at
the midway point. The Eagles would not go quietly in the frame
though and pulled to within four points of the lead, 19-15, on a
Sukaj kill. UNC would score the next four points to quiet the AU
run however and earned set point with an eight point advantage,
25-17.
AU and UNC traded points back-and-forth to open the third set
and were tied at six apiece through the first 12 points. North
Carolina took on the next point and used a 3-0 run to build a 9-6
lead. The Eagles answered right back with a 3-0 run of its own and
retied the score at nine on consecutive aces scored by Nash. AU
would come from behind twice more in the set, evening the score at
12 and at 14 after falling behind by two points each time, but
could not complete the comeback as North Carolina eventually took
the lead for good, 15-14, en route to match point at 25-17.
Sukaj led all scorers in the match with 18 kills and one ace for
19 total points. The senior notched a .308 hitting percentage in
the loss and added five digs defensively. Nash totaled 25 assists,
six digs and two aces. Cebakova led all players on defense with 16
digs.
