The Lehigh volleyball team, which holds a 8-6 record in the conference, is tied for the last spot in the Patriot League Tournament. To keep its hopes of qualifying alive, it will have to put together more performances like Saturday night’s against American University, in which freshman Ana Spangenberg registered a career-high 16 kills.
American, which was an undefeated 14-0 in Patriot League play entering the contest, had previously swept the Mountain Hawks on Oct. 7. Since that sweep, the Eagles had won every set of match game it has played.
Spangenberg did not even appear in the first meeting between the sides, but her 18 points Saturday were a team-high and helped reverse the script in this meeting, leading Lehigh to a sweep of its own.
She hit an exceptional .609 attack percentage for the match, helping to boost the team’s mark of .337 on Saturday, a significantly higher level than its season average of .187.
Even more valuable than the number of the points Spangenberg scored for the Mountain Hawks was the timing of them. She started by clinching the first set for the Mountain Hawks, registering a kill for the team’s 25th point. Then, near the end of the second set, she was a part of four straight points to help put it out of reach, contributing three kills and one block.
After Saturday’s standout performance, the freshman now has double-digit kills in back-to-back games against the top two teams in the Patriot League. Spangenberg and the Mountain Hawks still have a lot of work ahead of them, though, with games remaining against Army (18-10, 10-4 Patriot) and Holy Cross (8-19, 4-10 Patriot).
This is the seventh edition of what is a weekly installment in The Brown and White sports section. The Must-See Mountain Hawk series gives recognition to one of Lehigh’s top performers.
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