In front of a raucous home crowd in Thornton Gymnasium, the Spartan volleyball team took to the court against Benedictine in a key Northern Athletics Conference contest. The match would go five sets with AU winning the decisive fifth set in stellar fashion, 15-5.

AU got out to a quick start in the contest in the opening set, winning 25-17 and sending the home crowd in a frenzy. AU freshman setter Lexi O'Boyle moved the ball around nicely from her setter position with six different Spartans tallying kills, including a set high three from junior Cami Alexander.

The visiting Eagles tied the match in set two, winning 25-15 and setting up what would be a back and forth match with whoever served first capturing the set.

The Spartans responded in the third set, winning 25-22 behind O'Boyle's passing once against and Alexander capturing four kills in the set. Freshman Neely Marks added three of her 12 kills in the match in the third set.

Just as had happened in the earlier set, Benedictine evened the match in the fourth set, winning 25-18 and bringing the decisive fifth set tie-breaker. AU sophomore Emily Mitchell had four kills with freshman Aimee Piotnek adding three of her own.

In the fifth and final set, the Spartans got the home crowd behind them early, jumping out to a 7-2 lead behind the fine serving of yet another freshman, Courtney Geisler. Geisler scored four points in her five attempts. Alexander and Marks once again took nice passes from O'Boyle and blistered them past the Eagle defense.

After a second BU timeout with the score 9-2 Spartans, the visitors cut the lead to 9-4 before a side-out brought Spartan junior Kelly Coleman to the serving line. Coleman and the AU offense promptly pushed the score to 14-4 and the home crowd had Thornton Gymnasium rocking with excitement over the pending win over the rival Eagles.

A pair of side-outs finished the contest with a 15-5 win for the Spartans and their first NAC win of the 2011 season. AU is now 3-11 overall and 1-2 in the NAC.

Stat leaders for the Spartans included O'Boyle with 45 assists, junior Jessica Barney had 32 digs, Alexander had 13 kills and eight digs and Marks had 12 kills.