Nov. 9, 2007

Box Score in PDF Format

Final Stats

EASTON, Pa. - Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) and Alexa Gibbs (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) combined for 42 kills to help lead the Navy volleyball team to a four-game victory over Lafayette, Friday night at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa. Navy recorded its 20th victory of the season (20-11) with the 30-28, 28-30, 30-26, 30-27 victory over the Leopards (14-17).

The victory in the opening game of the match allowed Navy to clinch its third berth in the Patriot League Tournament over the last four years. The Mids, 7-6 in league play with only a match Saturday at Lehigh (4 p.m.) remaining in the regular season, will be the No. 4 seed in next week's tournament.

"We are very happy with being able to secure a spot in the playoffs, as well as come away with a very hard-fought victory," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "It was a typical Patriot League defensive match. Each game was close throughout and all could have easily gone the other way."

The opening game was tied 13 times, including at 16-16 when the Mids tired to separate themselves with a quick 4-0 run. Navy then held a lead of at least three points until Lafayette rallied from a 28-25 deficit to tie the game at 28-28. Dougherty promptly knocked down a kill to take the Mids to game point, then Gibbs dropped in a service ace to give Navy the victory and a spot in the playoffs.

The second game also was tied at 28-28, but this time Lafayette was the team to record an ace and a kill to come away with the 30-28 victory and even the match at one game apiece.

Game three was tied at 17-17 when the Mids used a 5-0 run to give themselves some breathing room. Dougherty tallied a pair of kills, Marissa Watson (Jr., Redondo Beach, Calif.) added an ace, Dougherty posted another kill and Lafayette committed an attack error to account for Navy's points during the run.

The Leopards soon climbed to within two points at 24-22 when Gibbs and Jessie Sims (Jr., Etowah, N.C.) connected on back-to-back kills and then combined on a block to give Navy a 27-22 lead and allow the Mids to play sideout volleyball over the remainder of the game.

Sims also made several plays down the stretch of the fourth game, tallying a kill and a service ace to break open a 26-26 game. The two points by Sims gave Navy a 28-26 advantage, which soon became 29-26 on an attack error by the Leopards. Lafayette pulled to within 29-27 on a kill, but Dougherty ended the match with her 22nd kill of the evening.

Navy held a 71-53 advantage in kills and totaled a .231 hitting percentage while holding the Leopards to a .133 percentage. Navy servers dropped in 10 aces on the night with Lafayette's players responding with eight aces. The Leopards also held advantages of 75-70 in digs and 11.0-9.0 in team blocks.

Dougherty's 22 kills paced all players in the match to set a new career-high for a four-game match. She set a career high for any match length Tuesday night when she posted 30 kills in Navy's five-game win over UMBC. Gibbs tied a career high with 20 kills in tonight's match, while adding a .457 attack percentage. Sims notched her second-straight double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs, while Watson distributed 60 assists. Keying the Navy defense was Aimee' Burns with 20 digs, her second-straight match with at least 20 digs.

Lafayette's offense was led by Kayly Elmer with 20 kills, while its defense was paced by 21 digs from Michaela Donohue and 20 from Kari Horn.