Oct. 25, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Elizabeth Lazzari totaled a match-high 16 kills and 16 digs to help the Army volleyball team post a four-set victory over Navy, Saturday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis. The Black Knights (20-3, 8-1 Patriot League) defeated the Midshipmen (14-10, 3-6) 18-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-15 in the annual Star Match between the service academies.

"We are obviously disappointed in the outcome of tonight's match," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Despite that, I know we left everything we had on the floor tonight. We played hard on every point and, for the most part, we played a pretty good match. Army has a great team and they showed why they are 20-3 on the year. They capitalized on all of our missed opportunities tonight. You can't afford to have many of those in a match like this."

The Mids separated themselves from the Black Knights early in the opening set. Navy jumped out to a 6-2 lead and slowly was able to extend its advantage to 18-10. After Army sliced the eight-point margin in half at 19-15, the teams played close to sideout volleyball over the remainder of the set as the Mids claimed the 25-18 win.

Army held a 12-11 lead midway through the second set when the Black Knights went on a 4-0 run to take a 16-11 advantage. Navy was only able to pull to within three points at 17-14 before Army stretched its advantage to as many as seven points at 24-17.

Navy came out of the break playing well at the start of the third set and scored six of the opening eight points. Army tied the score at 10-10 then took its first lead of the set at 12-11. The score would be tied again at 14-14 when a 4-0 run by the Black Knights gave them some breathing room over the Mids. That four-point cushion was then maintained over the remainder of the set as Army took a 2-1 lead in the match.

Army then held an 11-10 lead in the fourth set until the Black Knights scored the next three points to take a 14-10 lead. After a Navy sideout, Army scored nine of the next 11 points to take a 23-13 advantage before going on to close out the match.

"Against a talented and experienced team as Army is, a spread of three or four points in the middle of a set is hard to overcome," said Schwob. "We started out each of the last three sets okay, but we gave up one small run each time and that was enough of a cushion for Army.

"We have talked all year about wanting to improve in each match. As disappointed as we are, we do have a lot of positives we can pull from tonight. We need to realize those, while also looking at our mistakes, and keep building on what we have."

Army held statistical advantages in kills (54-45) and hitting percentage (.257-.185), while Navy posted 10.0 blocks to Army's 7.0. Both teams tallied a nearly identical number of service aces and digs in the match.

Alexa Gibbs (Sr., Springfield, Ill.) and Jessie Sims (Sr., Etowah, N.C.) were the top offensive players for Navy with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Sims also added a Navy-best 14 digs for her second double-double in as many nights, with Krista Eschelman (Jr., Germantown, Md.) contributing seven kills and seven blocks to the Navy effort.

While Lazzari led all players in the match in kills and digs, Jamie Clark add 12 kills and Shara Hoffman hauled in 14 digs for the Black Knights.

Navy will close out its home season this week with matches Tuesday against Coppin State (6 p.m.) and Thursday against American (7 p.m.). Both matches will be played in Macdonough Hall.