Oct. 16, 2009
WORCESTER, Mass. -- Holy Cross posted an attack percentage of .323 and held Navy to a mark of .221 to help the Crusaders to a 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 victory over the Midshipmen Friday night in Worcester, Mass.
"Holy Cross outplayed us tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Our errors really hurt us, as they always do in a close match."
The opening set was tied at 16-16 when Holy Cross (1-5 Patriot League) went on a quick 3-0 run to build a 19-16 lead. After a kill by Krista Eschelman (Sr., Germantown, Md.) pulled Navy (1-5 Patriot League) to within 19-17, the Crusaders answered with back-to-back points to take a 21-17 lead. The teams pretty much exchanged points over the remainder of the set.
The second set featured four ties and 11 lead changes. The score was tied at 22-22 when Holy Cross recorded a kill and an ace to take a 24-22 lead. Abbie Merkl (Sr., Upper Marlboro, Md.) posted a kill to allow Navy to stave off one set point, but Samantha Surface tallied a kill on the ensuing point to give Holy Cross the second set.
An Eschelman kill late in the third set allowed Navy to pull to within one point of Holy Cross at 20-19. Holy Cross responded by having Megan Lynch tally back-to-back kills to extended the lead for the Crusaders to three points. It soon became four points on a Navy ball-handling error and grew to 24-19 on another kill by Lynch. The Crusaders then ended the match on a Navy attack error.
Despite the wide margin in hitting percentage between the teams, Holy Cross only held a 42-39 advantage over Navy in kills and a 41-38 advantage in digs. What hurt the Mids were their 16 attack errors, 11 service errors and three ball-handling errors, while the Crusaders tallied just 11 hitting errors, five service errors and one ball-handling error.
Krista Eschelman paced the Navy offense with 10 kills and an attack percentage of .500.
Lynch led all players on the night with 14 kills.
Navy will travel to West Point, N.Y., Saturday in order to face Army in the annual Star Match between the two service academies. That match will begin at 7 p.m.
