Nov. 10, 2005

Final Stats

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BALTIMORE, Md. - Sophomores Rachel Dougherty (Derwood, Md.) and Jacqui Ludeman (Oxford, Mich.) combined for 30 kills and a .434 hitting percentage to help Navy to a four-game victory over Loyola, Thursday night at Reitz Arena in Baltimore. The Midshipmen posted a 29-31, 30-19, 30-27, 30-27 victory over the Greyhounds in Navy's regular season finale.

The victory was the sixth straight for the Mids and improves Navy's record on the season to 21-7, while Loyola fell to 7-23 on the year.

Navy now turns its attention to the Patriot League Tournament and a Nov. 18 semifinal match against Army. The winner of the match will face the winner of the American vs. Bucknell semifinal the following night in the league championship match. The league tournament will be held on the campus of American in Washington, D.C.

"I am very pleased with how we approached this final week of the season," said Schwob of the victories tonight over Loyola and Tuesday over Delaware State. "The matches did not have any bearing on what would happen to us in terms of seeding for the league tournament, but we did not look ahead to next week. We had to fight hard Tuesday to win and that was the case again tonight. As a result, I feel we kept our momentum going from the end of the league season and are ready to begin preparing for the tournament."

Navy let several leads slip away in dropping the first game of the match. The Mids held an advantage of 13-8 before the Greyhounds tied the score at 20-20. Navy tried to pull away with a 5-2 run, but Loyola scored three-straight points to tie the game at 25-25. The teams played sideout volleyball until Navy took a 29-28 lead to serve for the game, but Loyola scored three-straight points to post a 31-29 victory.

The Mids started strong in game two by scoring nine of the opening 10 points and never saw their lead dip below seven points over the remainder of the game. After hitting just .159 in the game one loss, Navy totaled a .591 attack percentage in winning game two.

Game three was close throughout and featured 11 ties and seven lead changes. Loyola held a 24-23 lead before the Mids scored three-straight points to take a 26-24 advantage. Back-to-back points by Loyola would tie the game at 26-26, but Navy converted a pair of points to jump in front 28-26. After a Loyola sideout cut Navy's lead to one point, Navy closed out the game with a pair of points.

The Mids started fast in game four, taking early leads of 6-1 and 9-2, then held slim leads through the middle part of the game. A 5-0 run would give Navy a 27-20 lead, but Loyola responded with a 7-0 run of its own to tie the game at 27-27. A kill and two blocks by Navy would close out the game and the match for the Mids.

Navy totaled a .240 attack percentage in the match and, with the aid of 13 team blocks, held Loyola to a .107 percentage.

Dougherty set a career high for a four-game match with 16 kills, totaled a personal-best .517 attack percentage and tallied seven blocks, while Ludeman knocked down a career-high 14 kills and recorded a .333 hitting percentage. Beth McArthur (Jr., Roseville, Minn.) tied Dougherty for match-high honors with 16 kills while also adding nine digs and six blocks.

Andrea Wernecke (Sr., Gaithersburg, Md.) led Navy's passers with 15 digs.