Sept. 2, 2006
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Final Stats
ELON, N.C. - After dropping the opening two games of its match against Elon by a combined four points, the Navy volleyball team rallied to force a fifth game before eventually falling, 15-11, Saturday night at the Phoenix Classic. The Phoenix claimed game one by a score of 32-30, then won game two by a count of 31-29. The Mids evened the match with wins in games three and four by scores of 30-22 and 30-25, respectively.
"We fought back after the opening games, but we just couldn't convert in game five," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Elon had the last momentum shift and that was enough to win the match."
The Phoenix quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead at the start of the decisive fifth game, but Navy eventually pulled to within one point at 9-8. Elon answered with a 3-0 run to take a 12-8 advantage, then the teams traded points over the remainder of the frame.
Nikki England (Jr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) paced the Navy offense with 18 kills and a .368 attack percentage, while also aiding the Navy defense with 10 digs. North Carolina native Jessie Sims (So., Etowah, N.C.) was named to the all-tournament team after recording 13 kills and 21 digs in the match.
Additionally on the defensive end for Navy, Megan Boyd (Sr., Richmond, Va.), Beth McArthur (Sr., Roseville, Minn.) and Rachel Dougherty (Jr., Derwood, Md.) all tallied six blocks in the match.
The loss dropped the Mids to 0-4 on the young season, while Elon improved to 1-3.
"Our measuring stick for how this weekend went for us will be how we play when we start facing teams from our own region," said Schwob. "It was good for us to play teams as we did this weekend (Navy also played UAB and TCU) from different conferences and parts of the country. We saw a lot of improvement in our play, both statistically and in doing things which don't appear in a box score. We played at a higher level every time we took to the court. We just need to improve at finishing games."
Navy will return to Annapolis for a Wednesday night match against Howard in Macdonough Hall. First serve is slated for 6 p.m.
