Oct. 13, 2009
Final Stats
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Four different Mids tallied at least nine kills to help the Navy volleyball team to a four-set victory over Howard, Tuesday night at Burr Gymnasium in Washington, D.C. The Mids prevailed over the Bison in the two-hour match by scores of 26-24, 25-21, 17-25, 25-22.
"We played well tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We were tested at times but persevered and were able to come away with a nice win. We had very good balance on offense and were able to get our block going on defense.
"It was a good start to an important week for us."
The opening set would see the score tied three times and exchange hands on eight different occasions. Navy (6-14) jumped out to an early 9-4 lead, but Howard (6-19) was able to tie the score at 13-13. After Navy built a 19-16 lead, Howard came right back to take a 20-19 advantage. After the score was tied at both 20-20 and 21-21, a Howard service error gave Navy a 22-21 lead. The margin soon grew to 24-21 following a block of Gazelle D'Artois by the tandem of Abbie Merkl (Sr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Maida Kalic' (So., Vernon, N.Y.) and an attack error by Howard's Nia Moore.
The Navy comfort zone quickly evaporated, however, as a kill by D'Artois followed by a Navy attack error and ball handling error allowed the Bison to tie the score at 24-24. Kalic' gave the Mids their fourth set-point opportunity with a kill, then an attack error by Moore finally gave the Mids the opening set.
Navy raced out to a 14-8 lead at the start of the second set, but immediately gave all but one point of that away when the Bison went on a 5-0 run. Navy would again take a slim lead, but once again Howard was able to pull to within one point at 20-19. Howard's run was ended with a service error, then back-to-back kills from Meghan Carpenter (So., Frederick, Md.) and Krista Eschelman (Sr., Germantown, Md.) pushed the Navy advantage to 23-19. After Howard pulled to within two points at 23-21 on a kill and service ace, Carpenter knocked down another kill and setter Jenny Rudewicz (Jr., Winter Garden, Fla.) recorded a solo block to end the second set.
The start of the third set saw Howard quickly score eight of the first 10 points to build an advantage that Navy could not significantly bite into. The closest the Mids would come to the Bison would be three points at 18-15.
The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair with neither team able to take any kind of lead over the other. After Rudewicz and Kalic' combined for a block to tie the score -- for the 11th time in the set -- at 17-17, a service ace from Lauren Carpenter (So., Murphy, Texas) allowed Navy to take an 18-17 lead. Meghan Carpenter and Kalic' then posted back-to-back kills to give the Mids a 20-17 lead, which grew to 21-17 on a block from Kalic' and Merkl. Howard sliced the four-point margin in half, but a service error ended the run for the Bison. The teams would exchange points over the remainder of the set to allow the Mids to close out the set and the match.
Navy finished the match with just one more kill than Howard did, 48-47, but the Mids tallied a .203 attack percentage while holding the Bison to a mark of .165. The biggest statistical different in the match was in blocking as Navy recorded 12 blocks to just six for Howard.
Meghan Carpenter's 14 kills paced all players in the match, with Navy's Ndidi Ibe (Fr., North Richland Hills, Texas) adding 10 kills on the night. Both Kalic' and Eschelman finished the match with nine kills, while Kalic' also contributed seven blocks.
Gabrielle Martin's 13 kills led Howard, while teammate Nicole Brown hauled in a match-best 15 digs.
Navy will take to the road again this weekend for matches Friday at Holy Cross and Saturday at Army.
