Sept. 11, 2009

Final Stats

DOVER, Del. -- The early-season struggles for the Navy volleyball team continued Friday as the Midshipmen dropped a three-set match to UMES on the opening day of the Delaware State Hornet Invitational in Dover, Del. The Hawks improved to 6-3 on the year with the 25-16, 25-23, 25-14 win over the now 1-7 Mids.

"We hit the ball much better today than we have this season and our serve was much improved," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "But while those areas were an improvement we had a drop off in other areas."

Navy hit a solid .438 in the first set, but finished with 16 attempts for the set while UMES tallied 15 kills on 25 swings and hit .400. The Hawks quickly turned a 9-8 advantage into a 15-10 lead and held a margin of at least four points over the Mids during remainder of the set.

The second set featured eight ties, with the last coming at 19-19. At that point the Hawks ran off the next five points to build a 24-19 lead. Navy answered with three consecutive points before the Hawks tallied a kill to end the set.

UMES promptly scored seven of the opening eight points of the third set to pull away from the Mids.

Navy hit a respectable .281 in the match but allowed UMES to tally a hitting percentage of .373. The Mids finished with 13 fewer kills (39-26) and 18 fewer attempts (75-57) than the Hawks tallied. UMES also held a 10-9 advantage over Navy in service aces, though the Mids committed just five service errors to nine for the Hawks.

Pacing the Navy offense again was freshman Carolyn Ewert (Bakersfield, Calif.), who knocked down a team-high eight kills in the match.

Navy will continue play in Dover Saturday with matches against both Norfolk State (9 a.m.) and Delaware State (1 p.m.).