Sept. 27, 2008
Box Score
WASHINGTON - The American University volleyball
team defeated Bucknell Saturday afternoon, 3-0, earning the team's
seventh straight-set victory of the season. Rubena Sukaj hit
.706 for the match with 12 kills to power the AU offense.
"I thought we did a really solid job serving and we attacked
well today," Head Coach Barry Goldberg
said. "We kept our errors to a minimum and that put some pressure
on Bucknell. Bucknell played well, especially coming off a big win
at Navy last night, but our defense picked up as the match went on
and I think that really helped us."
American's (8-6, 2-0) sweep came by set scores of 25-21, 25-15
and 25-9. The Eagles jumped out to an early 4-0 lead to begin the
first set but Bucknell battled its way right back and tied the
score at 5. With the score tied again at 10 apiece, the Bison would
go on a 3-0 run to take a three point lead, 13-10. After an AU
timeout, the Eagles scored three-consecutive points of their own,
including consecutive kills by Claire Recht, to
retie the score at 13. Tied 18-18, American finally put some
distance between itself and Bucknell with a 3-0 run to go ahead by
three, 21-18. The Bison held close through the final few points of
the set but could not catch the Eagles who took set point, 25-21.
Sukaj and Recht scored five and four kills, respectively, for the
Eagles in the frame as the team combind for a .438 hitting
percentage and 18 kills.
AU pulled away from Bucknell early in the second set and held a
four point advantage, 7-3, 10 points into the frame. The Bison
would again battle their way back though and tied the score at 11
before taking a brief one point lead, 13-12. American answered the
Bison's run with a 7-0 run of its own highlighted by two aces from
Heath and retook the lead, 18-13. After a Bucknell timeout, the
Eagles continued their hot streak and extended their lead to as
many as 10 on set point, 25-15. AU hit a match-high .524 in the set
including a perfect five kills on five attempts from Sukaj.
After trailing briefly in set three, 2-0, American took control
of the action. Leading 9-5, AU scored six-consecutive points with
three service aces by Sukaj to extend its lead to 10, 15-5. The
Eagles used a 5-0 run to up their advantage to 13, 20-17, before
easily taking match point, 25-9. AU's defense forced seven errors
in the frame and held Bucknell to just four kills for a hitting
percentage of -.150.
American finished the match with a season-high hitting
percentage of .434. Sukaj led all scorers with 12 kills on 17
attempts and zero errors for a .706 hitting percentage and added
three aces. Heath tallied 10 kills in the win on 16 attempts and
one error for a .562 hitting percentage. Senior setter Christina Nash
finished with 27 assists.
The Eagles will next play Lafayette on Friday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m.
as they continue their three-week homestand. The next day,
Saturday, Oct. 4, AU will welcome Lehigh to Bender Arena for a 2
p.m. match. Live video from both matches will be available on Eagle
Vision All*Access by clicking
here.
