Sept. 17, 2008
Box Score
Box Score in PDF Format
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Navy held an 11-2 advantage over Howard in service aces to help the Midshipmen record a three-set victory over the Lady Bison volleyball team Wednesday evening at Macdonough Hall in Annapolis. The 25-16, 25-17, 25-23 victory for the Mids improved their record to 7-3 on the season while the Lady Bison fell to 2-10 on the year with the loss.
"Our serve really started us going tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "In addition to the aces, we also had numerous serves that limited Howard's options following their initial pass. We also had a strong serve receive tonight until late in the match.
"A lot of people contributed for us tonight and we won in three sets, so it was a good night for us."
Navy trailed 8-6 early in the opening set before an Aubrey Manes (Jr., Pratt, Kan.) kill returned the serve to the Mids. Holly Berger (Fr., Claremont, Calif.) stepped to the service line and with the help of three services aces staked Navy to a 13-8 lead before a sideout for Howard made the score 13-9. Navy would outscore Howard 12-7 over the remainder of the set to post the 25-16 victory.
The Mids tallied seven aces in the first set and held a .235-.194 advantage in hitting percentage.
The second set saw Navy with an 8-7 lead until Alexa Gibbs (Sr., Springfield, Ill.) knocked down a kill and then served five consecutive points -- with two coming on aces -- to give the Mids a 14-7 lead. The Navy lead would reach as many as 10 points at 19-9 before the Mids closed out the set by the score of 25-17.
Though Navy added only three aces to their match total in the second set, the Mids were able to hold a sizeable .174-(-).038 advantage in attack percentage during the frame.
Navy managed to separate itself slightly from Howard in the third set at roughly the same time as the Mids successfully did in the opening two sets of the match. The Mids held a 9-8 lead before an attack error by Howard gave the serve over to Marissa Watson (Sr., Redondo Beach, Calif.). The senior team captain served until Navy held a 15-8 advantage, then the Mids jumped out to a 19-11 lead before the Lady Bison narrowed the margin down to two points at 19-17.
A Manes kill made it a three-point lead for Navy, but back-to-back kills by Gazelle D'Artois made the score 20-19. From there, the teams alternated every other point with another Manes kill ending the set at 25-23 and the match.
The Mids totaled a percentage of .253 on the night and the Lady Bison finished the match with a .139 attack percentage. Navy also totaled 36 kills, 45 digs and 7.0 team blocks over the three sets, with Howard posting 32 kills, 39 digs and 6.0 team blocks.
Individually, Gibbs led the Mids with 11 kills, a .500 attack percentage and five blocks, with Manes adding nine kills for the Navy offense and Berger contributing nine digs to pace the Navy defense.
D'Artois led all players with 12 kills and tied Gibbs for blocking honors with five blocks of her own.
Navy will be back in action on The Yard Friday night when the Mids play host to Wagner in a 6 p.m. match in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.
