Oct. 1, 2010

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Despite finishing the match with more kills, digs and blocks than Holy Cross did, the Navy volleyball team lost a three-set decision to the Crusaders Friday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House. Freshmen accounted for 32 of Navy's 40 kills during the narrow 25-22, 25-23, 25-21 loss.

"We struggled to find a rhythm and maintain it on either offense or defense in the early part of the sets," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "You have to give credit to Holy Cross for some of that, but we also made too many mistakes, mistakes that we haven't been making lately. We played well toward the end of the sets, but by then it was too late. You can't play from behind and expect to win, and we put ourselves in that position too many times tonight."

Holy Cross (8-12, 2-1 Patriot League) scored four of the first five points of the first set to quickly build an early lead over Navy (5-13, 0-3). The Crusaders would lead by as many as seven points during the opening set, but the Mids were able to pull to within two points of Holy Cross at 24-22 before a kill by Megan Lynch ended the set.

Navy was the team to take an early lead at the start of the second set. The Mids led by the score of 11-6 before the Crusaders were able to tie the set at 16-16. The score was again tied at 18-18 when Holy Cross went on a quick 3-0 run. The margin remained at three points at both 23-20 and 24-21 before back-to-back attack errors by the Crusaders allowed Navy to close to within one point at 24-23. A Kathleen Colpoys kill gave the Crusaders their 25th point to close out the set.

The third set saw the score tied 10 times and the lead exchange hands four times. What would prove to be the final tie of the set came at 15-15. Just as in the second set, a 3-0 run by Holy Cross gave the Crusaders some breathing room over the Mids. Navy closed to within two points at both 18-16 and 20-18, but could not slice into the deficit any more.

Navy finished the match with 40 kills, 59 digs and 5.0 team blocks, while Holy Cross tallied 38 kills, 56 digs and 2.0 team blocks. Both teams dropped in eight service aces. The difference in the match was Navy committing 21 attack and six service errors to the 15 attack and two service errors recorded by Holy Cross. That adds up to Navy committing 27 errors and Holy Cross 17. The Crusaders would tally nine more points than the Mids did (75-66) on the scoreboard.

Navy's Erin Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) posted her third triple-double of the season with 11 kills, 16 assists and 13 digs. She also hit .364 and added four service aces in the match. Nicole Salmon (Fr., Aurora, Ill.) also knocked down 11 kills to share the attack honors for the Mids. The duo finished with one more kill than freshman classmate Veronica Ffrench (Fr., Milton, Fla.) did. Leading all players in the match in digs was Holly Berger (Jr., Claremont, Calif.) with 19.

Megan Lynch posted a match-high 14 kills for the Crusaders. She had twice as many kills as the next closest player on the Holy Cross team did.

Navy will be right back in action Saturday night when the Midshipmen play host to Army in the annual Star Match between the teams. First serve for the match in the Wesley A. Brown Field House is 7 p.m. Admission is free.

"We had a disappointing result to our match last Friday at Colgate, but came back with a great effort the next day against Bucknell," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We are going to have to do the same thing tomorrow when we face Army. We have to pick things up and play cleaner volleyball and with more confidence from the very first point of the match than we did this evening."

A video stream of the match will be made available to Navy All-Access subscribers. Fans can visit www.NavySports.com to subscribe at either the monthly ($9.95) or yearly ($79.95) rate.