10/7/2004 - Women's Volleyball
Mids Take to the Road
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After opening its Patriot League season with three matches at home, the Navy volleyball team will open a stretch of seven-straight league road matches this weekend with a Friday match at Bucknell and a Saturday trip to Colgate. Both matches are slated to begin at 7 p.m.
Saturday's match in Hamilton, N.Y., can be heard live via the internet at www.sportsjuice.com/providers/colgate(.) There is no charge to hear the broadcast, which begins at 6:50 p.m.
With two weeks of the league season in the books, most of the eight teams remain bunched together in the standings. American leads the league with a 3-0 record, Army, Bucknell and Lafayette are all tied for second place at 2-1, Navy, Colgate and Lehigh stand one match behind with identical 1-2 records, and Holy Cross is the lone winless team in the league at 0-3.
"As expected, there hasn't been much separation among the teams, but I look for that to begin happening this weekend," said Schwob. "Being able to win both matches on a weekend will go a long way in helping any team make the playoffs.
"This is a start of a challenging stretch for us, but we were going to have to play all of these teams on the road at some point in the season. We might as well do it all at once. It may look imposing, but it also is a great opportunity for us. If we can have success on the road we will be in very good shape heading into the closing stretch of the season when we finish with four-straight matches at home."
Navy dropped its first two league matches of the season to preseason favorite American and to Army, tabbed to place second in the league, before picking up its first win of the league campaign last Saturday against Holy Cross. Despite the 1-2 record, the Mids have totaled 33 more kills than their opponents (161-128), are hitting only five points less than they are allowing (.190-.185), have hauled in only eight fewer digs (167-155) and have knocked down an almost identical number of team blocks (22.0-20.5).
The biggest statistical disparity between Navy and its foes has come in serving. The Mids have committed 44 service errors, twice as many as their opponents have (22), while dropping in only 16 aces and surrendering 23.
Navy's offense has four players averaging at least two kills per game, with Ashley Van Hartesvelt (Sr., Breckenridge, Colo.) at 3.73, Diane Sheldon (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) at 3.62 and Katey Geary (Sr., San Jose, Calif.) at 3.09 leading the squad. In addition to spreading the offense around, setter Ashley Musser (Jr., Industry, Pa.) leads the team with seven service aces and her 2.90 digs-per-game average stands second to Megan Vehovic's (Jr., Clymer, Pa.) mark of 2.82.
Bucknell has recorded league victories this season over Colgate and Lehigh, with a five-game loss at Lafayette accounting for its only setback. Jackie Leahy leads the Bison attack with 4.17 kills per game and a team-high eight service aces. Defensively, Carolyn Dougherty has hauled in 4.33 digs per game, while Amanda Grossmann's 13 blocks are tops on the team.
Despite tallying only three more kills than their opponents (153-150), the Bison are hitting nearly 70 points higher than their foes (.200-.133).
Colgate began its Patriot League season with back-to-back losses to Bucknell and at Lehigh, before earning its first victory of the year last Saturday at Lafayette. The Raiders have totaled one more dig (158-157) and four more team blocks (18.0-14.0) than they have surrendered, but have totaled 25 fewer kills (172-147), are hitting nearly 40 points lower (.210-.174) and have allowed more than twice as many service aces (37-17) through three league matches.
Laurel Oliver leads the team in kills (3.67), hitting percentage (.344) and aces (6), while Natalie Rawson is averaging a team-high 4.58 digs per game. Four players have totaled at least six blocks during the league season, with Allie Nichols' nine (0.75 bpg) leading all players.
