Oct. 24, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Seniors Alexa Gibbs (Springfield, Ill.), Jessie Sims (Etowah, N.C.) and Marissa Watson (Redondo Beach, Calif.) helped spark the Navy volleyball team to a 25-23, 25-18, 24-26, 25-14 victory over Holy Cross Friday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis.

The win snaps a four-match losing streak for Navy.

"I was pleased with what I saw on the court tonight, and that goes beyond us picking up the victory," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We saw our aggressiveness start to come back and we made plays when we needed to. We hadn't been doing that recently. It definitely was a step in the right direction. There are more steps to be taken, but I feel we are moving forward again."

After the trio of Gibbs, Sims and Watson were honored in Senior Night ceremonies, the Mids (14-9, 3-5 Patriot League) jumped out to a 10-5 lead early in the first set. The Crusaders (1-19, 0-8) kept chipping away at the Navy advantage and eventually took an 18-17 lead. The lead changed hands several times over the ensuing points until a kill by Navy's Krista Eschelman (Jr., Germantown, Md.) tied the score for the ninth time in the set at 22-22. An attack error by the Crusaders followed by a service ace from Sims took the Mids to set point at 24-22. Mallaigh McGinley recorded a kill for Holy Cross to stave off one set point opportunity for Navy, but Samantha Surface committed a service error for Holy Cross to give the Mids the opening set.

The second set was close from the very beginning, with the score being tied eight times through 10-10. After the Mids scored five of the next six points to take a 15-11 lead, the teams pretty much played sideout volleyball over the remainder of the set until the Mids won the set to take a 2-0 lead.

Navy tried to pull away from Holy Cross several times in the third set, but the Crusaders battled back each time. The Mids held a lead of 15-10 only to see the Crusaders pull to within two points at 16-14. Navy soon took a 20-16 lead, which quickly evaporated with a 4-0 Holy Cross run. After four consecutive sideouts made the score 22-22, Holy Cross took a 23-22 lead on an attack error from Navy's Meghan Carpenter (Fr., Frederick, Md.). A kill from Liz Auger gave Holy Cross the opportunity to serve for the set, but an attack error by Surface allowed the Mids to slice the deficit in half and stay alive in the set. The ensuing play saw Gibbs knock down a kill to tie the score at 24-24. Kathleen Colpoys promptly tallied back-to-back kills for Holy Cross to give the Crusaders the 26-24 victory.

"We played well down the stretch in winning sets one and two, then gave ourselves several great opportunities to win the third set," said Schwob. "Holy Cross made the plays at the end of the third set, and though we were disappointed we were unable to close it out at that time, we didn't less the loss linger. We came out strong right from the start of the fourth set and it ended up being our best set of the entire match."

The fourth set was tied at 3-3 when a 4-0 run by the Mids started to open up the score a little. Holy Cross closed to within 9-7 and 12-9, but Navy scored 12 of the next 13 points to take a 24-10 advantage before winning the 95 minute match.

Navy as a team totaled a hitting percentage of .252 and held Holy Cross to a mark of .127 in the match. The Mids also tallied nine aces, 63 digs and 5.0 team blocks, while the Crusaders posted five aces, 54 digs and 2.0 team blocks.

Sims tallied a match-high 15 kills and grabbed 16 digs to record her eighth double-double of the year, while also dropping in a trio of service aces. Her classmate Gibbs also reached double figures in kills with 12 on the night, while Watson handed out 46 assists and hauled in eight digs. Abbie Merkl (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) also played well for the Mids as she knocked down 11 kills and hit .450 while recording four aces, 10 digs and a pair of blocks.

"As a coach, you always worry about how the seniors will play during their Senior Night," said Schwob. "But Alexa, Jessie and Marissa really stepped up to the challenge and led us to the win."

Auger would total 11 kills on the night to lead the Holy Cross offense, while Surface finished the match with 10 kills.

Navy will play host to Army Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Wesley A. Brown Field House in the Star Match between the teams.