Oct. 10, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

WASHINGTON, D.C - A 5-1 run midway through the fifth set lifted the American volleyball team to a five-set victory over Navy, Friday night at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C. The Midshipmen fell to 2-3 in the Patriot League with the 20-25, 28-26, 25-14, 22-25, 15-11 loss to the now 5-0 Eagles.

This is the second consecutive season in which the Mids lost a five-set match to the Eagles.

"We went toe-to-toe with the best team in the league over the last seven years," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "It was a great effort by all of the players from both teams. Though we are disappointed in the loss, we feel very good about the lessons we can take away from tonight."

Navy jumped on the Eagles at the start of the match by scoring the opening six points of the contest, which led to an early American timeout. American rallied and eventually sliced the deficit down to 17-16, but the Mids ran off the next four points to build a 21-16 advantage. A few points later, Alexa Gibbs (Sr., Springfield, Ill.) tallied a kill to give the Mids the 25-20 victory.

The opening set victory by the Mids marked the first loss of a set by the Eagles in Patriot League play this season.

The Eagles took an early lead in set number two and were able to extend it to as many as six points at 21-15, but Navy responded with a 6-0 run to tie the score at 21-21. After American took a 22-21 lead, the Mids tallied back-to-back points to jump in front, 23-22. The Eagles promptly scored back-to-back points of their own to take a 24-23 advantage and served for the set, but the Mids not only erased the opportunity for American, they also scored again and took a 26-25 lead.

Navy served for the set and had a swing to take a 2-0 lead, but American dug the attempt and quickly tallied a kill to even the score at 26-26. A kill by Rubena Sukaj and a service ace by Cassandra Ricketts ended the second set for the Eagles.

The Mids held a 6-4 lead early in the third set until a 9-1 run gave the Eagles a 13-7 advantage before American pulled away from Navy to win the set.

Navy used a 3-0 run early in the fourth set to take a 14-10 lead, then took five-point advantages at 20-15 and 23-18 before closing out the set and sending the match to a fifth set.

The decisive fifth set was tied 6-6 until the Eagles put together back-to-back kills to take an 8-6 lead. A kill by Abbie Merkl (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) cut the Navy deficit in half, but the Eagles again tallied a pair of kills to take a 10-7 lead. Aubrey Manes (Jr., Pratt, Kan.) recorded a kill to make the score 10-8, but another pair of kills by American players and a Navy attack error gave the Eagles a 13-8 lead.

An American service error and attack error were followed by a Navy service error to make the score 14-10, Eagles, with the two teams trading kills on the ensuing two serves to end the over two-hour match.

American totaled nine kills and a .261 attack percentage in the fifth set, while holding Navy to six kills and a .158 attack percentage.

"It is important that we learn from this match," said Schwob. "The difference between winning and losing is very small, and tonight's match demonstrated that. We have to do what we have done after every match, which is continue to build upon our performance and be a better team the next time out."

Navy outhit American, .301-.278, and tallied better defensive numbers (60 digs, 11.0 blocks) than the Eagles (53 digs, 9.5 blocks) did in the match, but American knocked down 70 kills to Navy's 61 and dropped in 11 service aces to two by the Mids.

Navy's Sims tallied 22 kills to lead all offensive players, while Sukaj totaled 20 kills in lead the American effort. Other offensive standouts in the match included American's Rebecca Heath, 19 kills; and Navy's Gibbs, 13 kills; and Krista Eschelman (Jr., Germantown, Md.), 10 kills, .692 hitting percentage.

Four Mids hauled in 10 or more digs on the night, with Merkl's career-high 13 digs, along with 11 digs from both Sims and Marissa Watson (Sr., Redondo Beach, Calif.), leading the team. Additionally, Gibbs posted seven blocks and Merkl contributed five blocks for the Navy effort. Defensively for American, Sukaj totaled 14 digs and four blocks, with Ivana Cebakova adding 10 digs.

Navy will next be in action Oct. 17-18 when the Mids play at Colgate and at Bucknell.