WASHINGTON - The best hitting of the season led to the first sweep of the season for American University volleyball, as the Eagles (7-7, 1-1) took down visiting Holy Cross (1-14, 0-4) by scores of 25-20, 25-17 and 26-24. AU fought off two set points in the third, closing out the match with five straight points for the 3-0 victory.
NOTABLE
- Sophomore Katie Putney posted a season-high 13 kills and career-high hitting percentage of .632, making only a single error in 19 attempts.
- Junior Zeynep Uzen completed her sixth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 16 digs, also serving up two aces. Uzen's hitting percentage of .367 was her best so far this year.
- Also finishing in double digits in kills in just three sets was junior Asli Celikkol with 11.
- Graduate student Chiara Bosetti, getting the start at libero, posted a match-high 17 digs along with three service aces.
- Senior Carlie Fikse added a match-best four blocks to five kills, and freshman Esma Sipahi led the Eagles with 21 assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- American never trailed in the first set, and pulled away for good after seven early ties. Uzen posted seven of her 14 kills in the opening set, and the Eagles scored the final three points for a 25-20 win.
- The second set saw AU's best hitting of the match with 14 kills and zero errors as the Eagles posted a percentage of .519 compared to .194 for the Crusaders.
- Putney reached 11 kills with zero errors by the end of the second set, and Celikkol's fourth kill of the set ended things in favor of AU, 25-17.
- Celikkol's strongest set was the last one with six kills as the teams battled all the way through. There were nine ties and four lead changes, with a 6-1 Holy Cross run putting the Eagles in a 24-21 hole.
- American got two kills from Uzen, one from Celikkol and one from Fikse to rally back in a big way and take a 25-24 lead. An attack error on Holy Cross was the final point of the match as AU won the set, 26-24.
THOUGHTS FROM COACH GOLDBERG
- "I'm still on the edge of my seat to be honest with you, because there were just too many unforced errors... we need more consistency. We're trying to figure out who can serve five, six, seven in a row to get us going, or dig a ball into a good area regularly. We're just trying to get control of ourselves with a lot of young players that are in the forefront. I thought Katie played well this afternoon so that helped us. We're going need Zeynep and Asli to keep making differences for us. The way we came back at the end, you can see we have the ability to score a few in a row if we just stay consistent."
NEXT UP
- The Eagles will play their next six matches on the road, starting with a 7 p.m. contest at Lafayette on Friday, Oct. 1.
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