Sept. 23, 2007
Complete Box Score in PDF Format
Final Stats
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Army held Navy to a .196 attack percentage to help the Black Knights post a 30-25, 17-30, 30-28, 30-26 victory over the Navy volleyball team, Sunday afternoon at Gillis Field House in West Point, N.Y. The two-hour and 20-minute contest served as the Star Match between the two programs.
"It was one of the hardest-fought matches I can remember in the series," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Both teams spent all of their available energy this afternoon."
Navy held a 23-22 lead in the opening game when the Black Knights went on a 5-0 run to take a 27-23 lead. Elizabeth Lazzari started the run with a kill, then Rachael Breinling dropped in back-to-back aces for Army. Lazarri added another kill before Navy's Alexa Gibbs (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) was blocked by Jamie Clark to complete the run and give Army enough of a lead to win the game.
Game two saw the Mids slowly separate themselves from the Black Knights, turning a 10-10 game into a 19-11 advantage. Navy kept that margin until closing the game with a 6-1 run.
Navy held slim leads throughout game three, including at 25-23, but Army scored the next four points to take a 27-23 lead. Navy cut the two-point margin in half following a kill from Jessie Sims (Jr., Etowah, N.C.), but a kill from Lazzari and a poor set by the Mids took the Black Knights to game point.
"Game three was big," said Schwob. "We worked had to give ourselves a great opportunity to take a two games to one lead, but we didn't take advantage of that effort."
The fourth game was close, as well, with Army holding a slim advantage of two to three points for most of the last half of the game. The Black Knights took a 23-19 lead before Navy closed to within two points on kills from Gibbs and Sims. Army tried to separate themselves with back-to-back points of its own before Navy again narrowed the gap down to two points at 27-25. The Black Knights responded with two straight points, again, then the teams traded sideouts to give Army the victory.
Army totaled a .249 attack percentage in the match to outhit Navy by 50 points, while tallying 11 more digs and 20 more swings than Navy did. The Black Knights also held a 10-5 lead in blocks, though Navy did record more aces (10-6) and digs (67-64) than Army tallied.
Individually for Navy, Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) totaled 19 kills, but needed 53 swings to achieve that. She was joined in double figure kills by Sims with 15 and Gibbs with 12. Sims also tallied her sixth double-double of the season with a Navy-best 18 digs.
Navy saw its record fall to 11-5 overall and 1-1 in the Patriot League with the loss, while Army improved to 13-3 on the season and 1-1 in the league with the win.
The Mids will next play Friday evening when American travels to Macdonough Hall for a 7 p.m. contest.
