WASHINGTON – Senior Allison Cappellino registered 12 kills to lead the American University volleyball team to a 25-11, 25-22, 25-14 victory over Bethune-Cookman Friday evening in non-conference action.

The win was the ninth straight for the Eagles, who improved to 17-5 overall. Meanwhile, the Wildcats dropped to 8-15 on the season.

Senior Monika Smidova added 34 assists, six kills and seven digs for American, while freshman Carmen Unzue hit .556 with six kills on nine attempts.

The Eagles dominated the first set, getting out to a 6-0 lead and never looking back as Bethune-Cookman was held to a -.118 attack percentage. However, the Wildcats came out strong in set two, beginning with a 5-0 advantage before earning their largest lead at 16-9.

American responded to the challenge by going on a 14-3 run, including 10 straight points with freshman Kennedy Etheridge at the service line, to take the lead and the victory in set two.

"Bethune-Cookman is a very explosive and athletic team, so we were prepared for a pretty tough match," said American head coach Barry Goldberg. "We came out strong and served well. They made a number of hitting errors, which kind of surprised us.

"After game one, we told our team to be prepared, that [Bethune-Cookman] wasn't going to keep hitting balls out of bounds. They came right out making kills on us, and we were struggling a little bit, but we gained our composure back. We served some nice balls, especially Kennedy, who made a big run for us to bring us back and win game two."

The Eagles had another strong performance in the third set, using an early 8-0 run to push their advantage to double digits as they hit a match-high .419 to close out the win.

AU is back in action next Wednesday, Oct. 21, when it visits city rival George Washington in a 7 p.m. contest.