Oct. 13, 2007

Final Stats

Complete Box Score in PDF Format

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Strong serving by the Navy volleyball team allowed the Midshipmen to hold Lafayette to a .145 attack percentage during a 30-17, 30-21, 30-28 victory over the Leopards, Saturday evening at Macdonough Hall. The victory gives Navy a 4-3 record in Patriot League matches (15-8 overall) at the end of the first half of the league campaign, while Lafayette falls to 2-5 at the midpoint of the league season (10-13 overall).

The Mids held an 8-1 advantage over the Leopards in service aces during the match, with numerous additional tough serves by Navy forcing the Lafayette offense out of its rhythm.

"Our serve was key tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "It has been awhile since a number of people have been on with their serve, but tonight it was really clicking for a lot of players."

Navy slowly built a sizeable lead in game one, turning a 6-5 lead into a 15-9 advantage and holding at least a six-point cushion over the remainder of the game. The Mids outhit the Leopards .387-.054 in winning the game.

The Mids carried their momentum into the start of the second game by scoring the opening five points, but Lafayette rallied and soon the teams were tied at 10-10. Navy then held a 19-18 lead with Jessie Sims (Jr., Etowah, N.C.) recorded a service ace to start a 4-0 run that gave the Mids a 23-18 advantage. After a Lafayette sideout, the Mids closed the game with a 7-2 run.

Navy tied to pull away from Lafayette several times during game three, but the Leopards continually responded and closed the margin. The Mids held leads of 14-9, 20-15 and 26-23, but Lafayette quickly tied the game at 27-27. Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) posted a kill to break the tie, then setter Marissa Watson (Jr., Redondo Beach, Calif.) tallied a kill of her own to take the Mids to within match point. Watson was called for a ball-handling error on the next play to make the score 29-28, but she found Dougherty again on the next who ended the match with her 19th kill of the evening.

In addition to holding the lead in service aces, the Mids also finishing the match with a .308-.145 hitting percentage advantage over the Leopards. The lone game in which Navy failed to hit over .360 was the second game (.190), but Lafayette hit over .125 in just the final game of the evening (.256).

Dougherty's 19 kills paced all players in the match, with the outside hitter also posting a .409 attack percentage, six digs and a Navy-best three blocks in the contest. She was joined in double figure kills by teammate Sims with 10, who just missed a double-double with nine digs. Watson, however did record a double-double in the match with 10 digs and 40 assists.

Cara Mulholland tallied 12 kills and Maura Kelly knocked down 11 kills and hit .500 to lead the Leopards.

"This was a big win for us," said Schwob. "We have had the opportunity to win a pair of league matches during one weekend this month (Navy posted a 3-0 win over Lehigh Friday), but we haven't been able to play two complete matches. This was a nice hurdle for us to get over, but to make the playoffs we know we have to accomplish this again. We have to take the results and success of this weekend and build on it."

Navy will close the home portion of its Patriot League season this coming weekend with matches Friday against Holy Cross and Saturday against Army. Both matches are slated to start at 7 p.m. in Macdonough Hall.