The American University volleyball team moved one step closer to securing a position in the Patriot League Tournament on Thursday with a 3-0 win over Navy in Bender Arena. The Eagles have now won four straight matches, including three straight at home. American earned the victory by set scores of 25-18, 25-14, 25-12.

Navy (6-19, 1-9) took an early advantage in the first set, 3-0, but American (13-11, 7-3) quickly responded with a 5-0 run to take a 5-3 lead. Navy regained the lead and went ahead by as many as three points, 13-10, but could not hold the Eagles as they embarked on a 10-0 spurt to go back on top, 20-13. American finished off the set following consecutive Midshipmen errors, 25-18.

American again fell behind to begin the second set, 2-0, but regained its composure to overtake Navy. Leading by two points, 13-11, the Eagles used a 4-0 run to open its lead to 17-11 and then used a second 4-0 run to take a 22-13 advantage. Three straight points on an Angelina Waterman kill, Ann Recht kill and block by Recht and Katerina Cinkova gave American set point, 25-14.

It was all AU in the third set as the Eagles jumped out to a 10-5 advantage. American held an 18-12 lead late in the frame and put an end to the match with a 7-0 run, taking match point, 25-12. Recht recorded two kills during the stretch and assisted on a block with Waterman, putting an exclamation point on a solid night for both student-athletes.

Waterman led all scorers with 13 kills and added three block assists, four digs and one ace. Recht, meanwhile, chipped in nine kills on 13 attempts with one error for a .615 hitting percentage and led the team's defensive charge with seven block assists. Claire Recht and Magdalena Tekiel each notched six kills while Kyrsta Cicala dished out 30 assists. Cynammon Burns totaled 13 digs on the defensive side of the net.

The Eagles finished the match with a .378 hitting percentage, recording 39 kills against only eight errors. Defensively, American limited Navy to a -.023 hitting percentage while forcing 23 errors.

“We're really getting a good grasp of our attacking and we certainly did a good job of shutting down Navy's offense as well,” Head Coach Barry Goldberg commented during his live postgame interview with Eagles Vision TV. “Offensively and defensively I think we did pretty well. Krysta [Cicala] mixed it up well and got the ball to the middle. When we started to get the ball to the middle the outsides opened up a lot better, I thought it was a good combination.”

American will return to action next Friday and Saturday, November 6-7, with its final two home matches of the season. The Eagles will first face Holy Cross on Friday at 7 p.m. before hosting Army on Saturday at 4 p.m. Both matches can be seen live on the new Eagles Vision TV channel, featuring multiple camera angles, a live scoreboard and analysis from a studio broadcast team and sideline reporters. To sign up for Eagles Vision TV today, click here.