Aug. 31, 2008

Final Stats

Navy-Bryant in PDF Format

Navy-USC Upstate in PDF Format

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A pair of narrow victories Sunday allowed the Navy volleyball team finish the Trident Classic with a 3-0 record and win the tournament played in the Wesley Brown Field House in Annapolis for the first time since 2002. The Mids began the final day of the tournament by posting a five-set win over Bryant (16-25, 32-30, 18-25, 25-22, 15-11), then ended the weekend by recording a four-set victory over USC Upstate to secure the title (20-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-15).

"The entire weekend was a great confidence builder for our team," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "It wasn't just the wins that were important, but the way we did it by rallying in nearly every set and in every match. We still have a great deal of improvement that we need to make, but this was a good start for us."

The opening set of the Navy-Bryant match saw the Bulldogs tally the first seven points of the contest and eventually take a 12-3 lead. Navy was able to slice the deficit down to one point at 13-12, but Bryant was able to separate itself from Navy again to win the first set 25-16.

Navy quickly fell behind at the start of the second set by scores of 5-1 and 10-6 before taking a 13-12 lead. The set was tied five more times until the score reached 23-23. A kill by Maria Scocca gave Bryant its first set point, but a service error by Jazmin Stoner tied the score at 24-24. Navy's Abbie Merkl (Jr., Upper Marlboro, Md.), committed a service error of her own to give the Bulldogs a second set point, but they were unable to convert as Alexa Gibbs (Sr., Springfield, Ill.) knocked down a kill to tie the set at 25-25. Navy then took the lead on an attack error by Bryant's Scocca, but Gibbs recorded an attack error of her own to make the score 26-26.

The Mids served twice for the set following kills by Jessie Sims (Sr., Etowah, N.C.), but both opportunities were erased, first on an attack error from Gibbs and second on a block of Sims by Bryant's Hilary Andrews and Adrienne Boss. Krista Eschelman (Jr., Germantown, Md.) then committed a hitting error to give Bryant a 29-28 advantage and its third opportunity to serve for the set and take a 2-0 lead. Sims recorded another kill, however, to tie the set at 29-29. After an Eschelman kill returned the serve to the Mids, she quickly tallied an attack error to again tie the set at 30-30. The Mids took a 31-30 lead on a ball-handling error by Andrews, then a kill by Gibbs on Navy's fifth set point ended the set, 32-30.

After another slow start by the Mids -- Navy trailed 8-2 -- allowed the Bulldogs to win the third set 25-18, the fourth set featured eight ties including at 20-20. At that point a Gibbs kill gave Navy a 21-20 lead, which grew to 22-20 following an attack error by Stoner. Scocca answered immediately with a kill to cut the margin down to 22-21, but a service error by Stoner made the score 23-21. A kill by Scocca and a service error by Miranda Kolb allowed Navy to reach set point at 24-22, then the Mids ended the set on a block from the duo of Eschelman and Aubrey Manes (Jr., Pratt, Kan.).

Bryant jumped out to leads of 4-1 and 6-3 early in the decisive fifth set, only to see Navy rally and tie the set at 8-8. Bryant took a 10-9 lead, but the Mids scored three consecutive points on a kill from Sims, a block from Eschelman and Manes and a ball handling error from Bryant's Boss. Andrews knocked down a kill to cut the margin down to one point at 12-11, but kills by Eschelman and Gibbs took Navy to match point at 14-11. The nearly two-hour contest ended when Merkl's free ball passed from the back row and far right side of the Navy end of the court to the far right side of the Bryant offensive side of the court was uncontrollable by a Bulldog player.

Navy won the match despite being outhit .129-.081. What saved the Mids were nine service aces and 15.0 team blocks, as compared to six aces and 11.0 blocks for Bryant.

Sims and Gibbs both ended the match with 14 kills, Holly Berger (Fr., Claremont, Calif.) hauled in 13 digs and Eschelman tallied nine kills and eight blocks.

"I don't remember winning a match before when hitting under .100," said Schwob. "Bryant played very well and it took us awhile before we were able to make some adjustments. In the meantime, we were able to keep things close and eventually we made big plays at very key times."

The start of the Navy-USC Upstate match saw both teams put together sizeable offensive runs. The Spartans took a 7-3 lead, only to see Navy rally and jump in front 15-14. USC Upstate answered by scoring the next five points to take a 19-15 advantage, which was enough to hold off Navy in the end, 25-20.

Navy then played perhaps its best set of the young season, scoring 10 of the first 11 points of the second set and quickly building a double-digit advantage at 15-5. The Navy lead would grow to 20-9 and 22-12 before the Mids closed out the set with three straight points.

The third set would see 13 ties, with what would prove to be the last one coming at 22-22. Sims broke the tie by posting back-to-back kills to give Navy a 24-22 lead then, after a kill from USC Upstate's Katie Downey, an attack error by Sandra Campbell gave the Mids the third set and a 2-1 advantage.

As in the second set, Navy jumped out to a 10-1 lead at the start of the fourth set and soon built a 21-8 advantage. The Spartans scored five consecutive points to make the score 21-13, but a few points later Gibbs ended the match with a kill.

Navy tallied a hitting percentage of .271 in the match and held USC Upstate to a percentage of .177. The Mids also recorded 16 service aces -- five by Gibbs -- and 6.5 team blocks to the seven aces and 3.0 blocks posted by the Spartans.

In addition to her match-high five aces, Gibbs also led Navy with 14 kills and a .423 hitting percentage. Eschelman joined her with double figure kills with 10 kills and five blocks.

"Our serving really came to life," said Schwob of Navy's efforts in its final match. "We kept the pressure on and took advantage of what our serve gave us."

With posting the 3-0 record on the weekend (which included a three-set sweep over St. Francis of N.Y. on Friday night), Navy won the Trident Classic. It was the first time in four tries and six years (the tournament was not held in either 2003 or `05) that Navy came away with the tournament title. Bryant finished in second place with its 2-1 record, USC Upstate placed third (1-2) and St. Francis (N.Y.) finished in fourth place (0-3).

Afterwards, Gibbs and Eschelman were both named as Navy's representatives to the Trident Classic All-Tournament Team. Gibbs averaged a Navy-best 3.33 kills per set over the three matches while adding nine service aces and 12 blocks. Eschelman finished the tournament with an average of 2.17 kills per set and led the Navy defense with 18 blocks.

Even with the strong performances of Gibbs and Eschelman, Navy setter Marissa Watson (Sr., Redondo Beach, Calif.) was tabbed as the Most Valuable Player of the Trident Classic. Watson, Navy's team captain this year, averaged 8.67 assists per game while totaling five aces and 16 digs through the course of the weekend.

"Either Alexa or Krista very easily could have been selected as the MVP of this tournament," said Schwob. "But Marissa was a very good floor leader on the court in all three matches and played at a consistent level throughout the weekend."

Rounding out the Trident Classic All-Tournament Team were Bryant's Delia Glover and Jazmin Stoner, Sandra Campbell from USC Upstate and Liliana Rodriguez from St. Francis (N.Y.).

Navy will take to the road for the next two weeks of the season, a stretch that starts this coming weekend at the Runnin' Bulldog Classic. The Mids will face Winston-Salem State Friday before playing tournament-host Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern Saturday.