Aug. 25, 2007
Final Stats - Wofford | Final Stats - Savannah State
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Navy volleyball team closed play at the USC-Upstate Volleyball Tournament by dropping a three-game match to Wofford and winning a three-game contest over Savannah State, Saturday afternoon at the Hodge Center in Spartanburg, S.C.
Saturday's results followed Navy's four-game win over the tournament-host Spartans Friday night.
"Overall, it was a good opening weekend for us," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Our goal was to win all three of our matches this weekend, so from that standpoint we can't call it a great weekend. We were challenged in a number of different ways in each match this weekend. Some challenges we responded well to and some we did not, but overall we learned a lot about ourselves and our team this weekend, so in that respect it was a successful trip."
The Mids began play Saturday by losing a 30-24, 30-28, 30-21 decision to the Terriers (2-0). Navy started the match very slowly and allowing Wofford to score five of the opening six points of the match. The Mids responded and tied the score at 9-9, but Wofford tallied seven of the next eight points to take a 16-10 advantage and held at least a five-point lead over the remainder of the game.
Game two started with neither team able to take any kind of lead until Navy took a 15-11 advantage. Navy held the lead until a 10-2 Wofford run gave the Terriers a 22-18 lead. Wofford then held a 25-24 lead when back-to-back blocks by the Terriers pushed the margin to 27-24.
The Mids responded by scoring the next three points to tie the score on kills from Jessie Sims (Jr., Etowah, N.C.) and Marissa Watson (Jr., Redondo Beach, Calif.) and a block from the duo of Sims and Alexa Gibbs (Jr., Springfield, Ill.)..
Wofford's setter, Joanna Sudderth, proceeded to dump the ball following the ensuing Navy serve to give the Terriers a one-point lead, which they then increased to 29-27 when Nikki England's (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) attack was blocked by the Wofford front row.
Sims notched a kill to pull the Mids to within 29-28, but the game ended when Wofford's Shanna Hughes tallied a kill of her own.
The Terriers jumped out on the Mids at the start of game three by scoring 10 of the first 12 points of the game and held a lead of at least six points over the remainder of the game to close out the match.
"Wofford dictated the pace of play from the first point of the match," said Schwob. "We committed a number of unforced errors very early, which Wofford jumped on. We cleaned things up a little as the match went on, but you can't give a good team as many opportunities as we did today."
Navy tallied 26 attack errors in the match which led to a .165 hitting percentage for the Mids. Conversely, Wofford totaled just 14 attack errors and a .232 hitting percentage in the match. The Mids also accrued 10 service errors, five receiving errors and eight ball-handling errors, while the Terriers finished the afternoon with five service errors, four receiving errors and just one ball-handling error.
Sims paced the Navy offense with 15 kills and added 10 digs, while Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) knocked down 12 kills and team captain Aimee' Burns hauled in a Navy-best 12 digs.
In Navy's (2-1) final match of the tournament, the Mids used runs in the middle of each of the three games to record the 30-13, 30-19, 30-18 sweep over the Tigers. Navy's offense totaled a .293 attack percentage in the match, while its defense held the Tigers to a -.030 hitting percentage. A total of 13 Mids finished the match with at least one kill, with Aubrey Manes (So., Pratt, Kan.) pacing the Mids with five kills.
"We did a much better job of coming out focused and playing a clean volleyball match against Savannah State than we did against Wofford," said Schwob. "It also was nice to be able to see strong contributions from everyone on our bench. We will need that during the season."
For their efforts this weekend, Sims, Gibbs and Watson were named to the all-tournament team.
Navy's home opener will be Tuesday night when the Mids play host to Coppin State in a 6 p.m. match in Macdonough Hall.
