Sept. 12, 2008

Box Score

WASHINGTON - American University volleyball's Rubena Sukaj set a new Patriot League career kills record on Friday night as she led the Eagles to a 3-0 victory over Harvard in the team's first match at the Harvard Invitational. Sukaj scored 14 kills to move her career total to 1,720 and pass Army's Deann Machlan (1992-95) for first all-time in the conference.

Sukaj entered the night in second place all-time in the PL with 1,706 kills, needing just 12 to tie Machlan's record of 1,718 and 13 to pass her. After beginning the night slowly, recording only two kills on four attempts in the first set, Sukaj progressively became more involved in the AU offense and passed Machlan on her sixth of seven kills in the third set. Sukaj finished the match with 14 kills on 26 attempts with one error for a .500 hitting percentage.

"I want to be the first to congratulate Rubena on setting this record. It is well deserved," Head Coach Barry Goldberg said. "Rubena is a hard worker, talented, and has meant a lot to our program both on and off the court. She has been a big part of our success over the last few years and we hope that she has every opportunity to finish off her career with great success."

American earned the sweep over the Crimson by a score of 25-9, 25-19, 26-24. Despite Sukaj's slow start, the Eagles rolled early and outhit Harvard by more than 700 points in set one. AU jumped out to a commanding 14-5 lead in the set and scored eight consecutive points down the stretch to push their lead to 16 and take set point at 25-9. In the frame the Eagles tallied 13 kills on 18 attempts and zero errors for a .722 hitting percentage while the defense held Harvard to seven kills on 21 attempts with seven errors and a .000 hitting percentage.

In the second set American was limited offensively early and found itself locked in a tight struggle with Harvard, tied 7-7. The Eagles then rattled off four-consecutive points to take an 11-7 lead and never looked back, extending the lead to as many as seven before taking the set, 25-19. Sukaj and freshman Rebecca Heath each tallied five kills in the frame as senior setter Christina Nash dished out 15 assists. Although the Eagles defense failed to record a block in the set, the team outhit Harvard by a wide margin, .333 to .200, to take the victory.

AU was tested in the third set and trailed, 12-15, at the midway point. The Eagles would fight back though and tied the score at 16 apiece before falling behind again late in the frame, 21-22. Sukaj's record setting 13th kill of the night tied the set at 22 and a Katerina Cinkova service ace on the next play put AU ahead, 23-22. The Crimson evened the score at 23 though with a kill of their own and again knotted the set at 24. In a win-by-two scenario now, AU needed two-consecutive points to put the match away and received just that. Sukaj tallied her 14th and final kill of the night to move the Eagles ahead off a pass from Nash, 25-24, and Heath put the match away as Nash found her on the outside for set point, 26-24.

"We played really well in the first set, made good decisions and committed zero errors," Goldberg said. "Later in the match we started making a few mistakes and didn't play as well. Thankfully though we played well enough to get the win. Tomorrow will be an exciting day as we play against two good teams in Long Beach State and Dartmouth. If we play as we did tonight in the first set tomorrow could be a very good day for our team."

Sukaj led all scorers in the match with her 14 kills and recorded 10 digs for her third double-double of the year. Sukaj also recorded one service ace and now needs just three more to tie former Fordham Ram Jenn Shea's (1991-94) PL record of 255 career aces.

Nash directed the AU offense to a .381 hitting percentage while dishing out 33 assists. Heath notched 12 kills kills to reach double digits for the sixth time in seven matches and junior Ivana Cebakova anchored the defense with 11 digs. The Eagles tallied nine service aces on the night including four from Cinkova and three from classmate Cassandra Ricketts.

AU will return to the court tomorrow, Sept. 13, for two matches to close out the Harvard Invitational. The Eagles will first see action at 11 a.m. as they face No. 22 Long Beach State before meeting Dartmouth at 4:30 p.m. Live stats for both matches will be available by clicking here.