10/5/2004 - Women's Volleyball
Navy Volleyball Sweeps Hampton
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Navy scored nine of the opening 10 points of the match on its way to a three-game sweep of Hampton, Tuesday night in Macdonough Hall. The Midshipmen defeated the Lady Pirates, 30-8, 30-28, 30-12.
The victory improves Navy's record to 12-4 on the season and allowed the Mids to surpass their victory total for all of last season.
"It seems like a long time ago since our last sweep," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob of the nearly three-week span since Navy last recorded a sweep. "I was very pleased with how we came out to start the match and how everyone who took to the floor in game two responded to the challenge presented by Hampton."
The Mids rolled in game one, jumping out to leads of 6-0, 9-1, 13-2 and 23-4. Navy knocked down nine kills and committed only one hitting error on 22 attempts (.364) in the first game, while holding Hampton to a negative .167 percentage. The Mids also tallied nine service aces in the game.
With most of Navy's match starters on the bench to begin game two, several Navy miscues and some timely hitting by Hampton allowed the Lady Pirates to build leads of 7-2 and 16-8. Hampton still led, 26-21 and 27-24 before the Mids closed the game on a 6-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in games. Hampton outhit Navy in the second game, .133 to negative .051, but the the Lady Pirates committed seven service errors -- many of them coming late in the game -- and the Mids dropped in four service aces to help their comeback.
Nine Navy players tallied at least one kill and 11 Mids hauled in at least one dig in the match. Diane Sheldon (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Ashley Van Hartesvelt (Sr., Breckenridge, Colo.) each totaled seven kills and six service aces to lead the Navy offense. Defensively, Sheldon added four digs while Van Hartesvelt totaled two digs and two blocks. Megan Vehovic (Jr., Clymer, Pa.) led Navy with seven digs.
"While both teams have different makeups from last year, we lost to Hampton in four games at their place," said Schwob. "That is a good sign of how we have progressed from last season."
Navy will return to Patriot League play this weekend with matches Friday at Bucknell and Saturday at Colgate.
