Oct. 4, 2008

Box Score in PDF Format

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The all-around play of Alexa Gibbs (Sr., Springfield, Ill.) helped the Navy volleyball team post a four-set victory over Lafayette, Saturday afternoon at the Wesley A. Brown Field House. The Mids improved to 2-2 in Patriot League play with the 25-18, 12-25, 25-23, 25-22 victory over the now 1-3 Leopards.

"What a hard-fought match by both teams," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Both defenses played so well today. Neither was going to give an inch to the other. The rallies were long and all of the players did a great job of maintaining their focus throughout the match."

The Mids put together one of their best matches of the season Friday night in posting a four-set win over Lehigh, and continued that momentum in the opening set of Saturday's match. Navy held a slim 13-12 lead in the first set before running off four consecutive points -- the first and last coming on service aces by Abbie Merkl (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) -- to take a 17-12 advantage. From there, the Navy lead never dipped below four points as the Mids took a 1-0 lead in sets.

Any momentum Navy had following the opening set was quickly quashed by the Leopards in set number two. Lafayette stormed out to a 13-4 lead and led by as many as 15 points before posting the 25-12 win to even the match at one set apiece.

The Leopards started off the third set strong again, tallying five of the first six points to go up on the scoreboard. Navy regrouped, however, and soon tied the score at 11-11. The Mids gave themselves some breathing room a short while later as a 3-0 run gave Navy an 18-14 lead. Lafayette rallied and made it a one-point set at 20-19 before another 3-0 Navy sprint made the score 23-19. Navy would soon reach set point when a kill by Merkl made the score 24-21, but a kill by Katrina Racibarskas and an attack error by Aubrey Manes (Jr., Pratt, Kan.) allowed the Leopards to stave off a pair of Navy opportunities. The Mids would pick up the point and the second set on an attack error by Kayly Elmer.

The fourth set was close from the opening serve. The score was tied 17 times and the lead changed hands a total of 11 times during the course of play. What would prove to be the last tie of the set came at 21-21 when Gibbs and Merkl teamed up for a block on Racibarskas. Navy took a 22-21 lead on a Lafayette attack error, then Gibbs and Jessie Sims (Sr., Etowah, N.C.) combined for a block to give the Mids a 23-21 advantage. After Gibbs was blocked by Elmer and Alana Taylor to make the score 23-22, Gibbs came right back and knocked down a kill to give the Mids their first opportunity to win the match.

Gibbs, who dropped in back-to-back aces on her previous trip to the service line, then went back to serve for the Mids. Her powerful jump serve resulted in an overpass back to the middle of the net, with teammate Krista Eschelman (Jr., Germantown, Md.) able to dump the ball back over the net and to the ground to end the match.

"Alexa really had her serve going as the match went on," said Schwob. "Her aces midway through the fourth set really sparked us.

"Every match we play in the Patriot League is going to be like this one. And they all are going to come down to which team is making the close plays late in every set."

As would be expected when the difference in total points scored between the two teams was just one, all of the statistics were extremely close. Navy finished with 55 kills, a .254 attack percentage, seven aces, 58 digs and 7.0 team blocks. Lafayette, meanwhile, tallied 53 kills, a .245 hitting percentage, eight aces, 53 digs and 7.0 team blocks.

After totaling nine kills and hitting .438 in the first half of the match, Gibbs posted seven kills, three blocks and three service aces in sets three and four. She would finish the match with a Navy-best 16 kills, three service aces and four blocks, while also hitting .306 on the afternoon. Joining her with double-figure kills was Sims with 10, while Eschelman posted nine kills and one error on 16 swings for a .500 hitting percentage and contributed three blocks. Also playing extremely well for the second straight match was Merkl with six kills, a .385 hitting percentage, two aces, three blocks and a career-high 12 digs. Leading the Navy passers on the afternoon was Holly Berger (Fr., Claremont, Calif.) with 18 digs.

Lafayette's Elmer paced all players in the match with 19 kills, while Kari Horn matched Berger's effort with 18 digs.

Navy will close out a six-match homestand Wednesday night when the Mids play host to Saint Francis (Pa.) in a 6 p.m. match in Macdonough Hall.