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Blue Crew 2 extends school spirit to AU alumni New group gives grads a way to cheer for Eagles By KATE GREUBEL Eagle Staff Writer
ANA SANTOS / THE EAGLE
SLAMMIN’ IT DOWN — Sophomore middle blocker Bianca Richardson goes for the spike in a match from earlier this year. The Eagles traveled to Bucknell and Colgate to pick up a pair of Patriot League wins.
Volleyball takes down PL foes By TYLER TOMEA Eagle Staff Writer
The AU volleyball team got off to a great start in Patriot League play this past week by going on the road and defeating both the Bucknell University Bison and the Colgate University Raiders in its first two conference clashes. The two wins improve the Eagles overall record to 132, their best start after 15 matches since 2001; a year in which they finished 26-4 and made an NCAA Tournament appearance. Bucknell Magdalena Tekiel registered a career-high 22 kills to go along with 12 digs and two block assists as the Eagles defeated Bucknell 3-1 on Friday. The victory came by set scores of 25-23, 25-19, 3032 and 25-15.
Fellow senior Angelina Waterman notched 13 kills, two service aces and seven digs, while Alexandra Hammer led the AU offense with 43 assists. Juliana Crum added 11 digs on the defensive side. After the Bison jumped out to a 19-12 first set lead, AU rallied back by scoring six of the next seven points. Bucknell then extended its lead to 23-18, before the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to take the set, highlighted by four Tekiel kills. In the second set, it was the Eagles who jumped out to the early lead, as they held an 18-10 advantage after a Bucknell attack error. But the Bison stormed back, scoring nine of the next 11 points to cut the AU lead to 20-19. Leading by one, AU scored the next five points, and a Waterman kill put the Eagles up 2-0. The third set was back and
forth throughout, but the Eagles had a chance at a straight set victory as they held a 24-21 lead. Bucknell then scored four consecutive points to pull ahead 25-24, and the set was eventually tied at 30 apiece and neither side could gain a two-point advantage. Two straight kills by Bucknell’s Katie Baumgarten gave the Bison their first and only set victory of the match. AU jumped on Bucknell in the fourth set, taking leads of 18-10 and 22-14. The Bison could not muster a comeback. A Bianca Richardson kill cemented the Eagles 3-1 victory. Colgate Waterman led the Eagles in their 3-1 defeat of Colgate, as she posted 15 kills and nine digs in the victory. Tekiel and Deborah Frantz each had a team-high 12 digs, and Krysta Cicala set up the offense with 27 assists. The win came by set scores of 25-20, 25-16, 14-25 and 25-19. AU jumped out to a 14-9 lead in the first set, and a Katerina Cinkova kill put the Eagles in front 17-13. AU led 24-20 when a Cassandra Ricketts kill put the
Eagles up 1-0. After two straight Logan Keala attack errors, AU again had a comfortable advantage as they led 18-9 in the second set. Colgate would get as close as 19-13, but AU would go on to win the second set thanks to kills from Ricketts and Richardson. The Raiders put forth a strong effort in the third set. Colgate held a five point lead at 15-10, and that advantage ballooned to 10 as the Raiders led 22-12. Two attack errors by AU later gave the Raiders the 25-14 third set victory. The Eagles stopped Colgate’s momentum in the fourth set, as AU held a 2017 lead late and then a 2318 advantage after an attack error by Bucknell. A Waterman kill off an assist from Cicala gave AU the 25-18 set victory and the 3-1 win. AU will next play on the road against the Morgan State University Bears on Sept. 29 before returning home for their third Patriot League contest against the Army Black Knights on Oct. 1. ttomea@theeagleonline.com
Just over five years ago, AU had a dying student section at sporting events. Enter Joe Vidulich. Then president of AU Student Government, Vidulich helped the Athletic Department develop Blue Crew. Since then it has grown to be the largest student group on campus. Now the students who were freshmen when Vidulich helped create Blue Crew have graduated, left with no group connection to AU sports. Enter Blue Crew 2. Launched by AU this past August, Blue Crew 2 is an alumni group that allows graduates to continue their passion for AU sports and show their school pride. “Blue Crew 2 is a great way to bring all the excitement on campus and what athletics is doing on campus back to your home,” said Senior Associate Administrator of Development and Special Events for AU Athletics David Bierwirth. Although the group was launched just over a month ago, it has been on the drawing boards for a number of years. Bierwirth has worked on the group since the beginning when the idea was developed as a result of a number of meetings between him and AU Alumni Relations. Bierwirth said Alumni Relations, Raina Lenney, Brian Keane and Margo Herron as central players in the planning the group. “Herron in particular was an alumna who was very excited about the idea and gave a lot of insight into the group,” Bierwirth said. Herron is on AU’s Alumni Board and graduated with a B.A. from the School of Public Affairs in 1985 and an MBA from the Kogod
School of Business in 2003. As an undergraduate, Herron played field hockey for AU. She is also credited with coming up with the name Blue Crew 2. Herron came up with the “2” because she believes the alumni group to be a separate but supportive entity of Blue Crew. She does not want the group to “take away” from what Blue Crew does, but add to school spirit, she said. “We don’t want to crash on the students’ party,” Herron said. “But the group is also in support of AU sports and student-athletics.” That the 2010 graduating class of AU was the first class to graduate from the University having been Blue Crew members for four years was important in the development of Blue Crew 2, Bierwirth said. Just like Blue Crew, Blue Crew 2 offers its members a variety of amenities and incentives for joining. For $18.93 — the price was consciously set to 1893 as a tribute to the year AU was founded — alumni receive a Blue Crew 2 T-shirt, discounts on tickets to all AU sporting events and discounts at the bookstore. The benefits of joining are intended to give alumni as many opportunities as possible to return to campus, Bierwirth said. “We would love [alumni] to come back and enjoy a game on campus whether they are a soccer fan, a wrestling fan or a basketball fan,” Bierwirth said.”[Blue Crew 2] is open to all alumni, of any generation, that are engaged by a passion for athletics.” To inform alumni, whether they “graduated in the 60s or last year,” Bierwirth said the Athletics Department has relied on Twitter, Facebook !
see CREW on page 18