Feb. 9, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy rifle team will host John Jay on Saturday morning at Bancroft Rifle Range in the NCAA Qualifier. The Qualifier, added with an average of two other scores, will determine the qualifiers for the NCAA Championships next month in Alaska. Seven teams will be selected for the national championship and Navy needs a good performance on Saturday to earn a spot.

"We definitely have our work cut out for us," said Navy head coach Bill Kelley. "There are about 10-12 teams really going after the top seven spots and we are right in the middle of the pack. We need to put up a good score tomorrow and take some people out ahead of us. We have the people to do it, we just have to go out and compete and perform well."

The Mids have posted their three highest scores of the year in the last three matches, recording a 4648 against Alaska-Fairbanks, and a 4634 and 4633 at the University of the Sciences two weekends ago. Kelley said a similar score should be good enough to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but doesn't want to take any chances.

"We need a solid score near our season high and that should be good enough," said Kelley. "But I don't want to take any chances. We are at the point in the season where we should be shooting our best scores and hopefully tomorrow we can do that. We are ready to go and excited to compete."

Action will start at 8:00 am in Bancroft Rifle Range.

# GO NAVY #