Oct. 15, 2010
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Lehigh totaled only seven more points than the Navy volleyball team did on the night, but that slim difference allowed the Mountain Hawks to escape with a four-set victory over the Midshipmen Friday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis. Lehigh won the match by the scores of 19-25, 25-22, 25-21 and 25-19.
"We stopped our own momentum tonight," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We either committed service errors or gave Lehigh an easy serve to work with coming out of timeouts called by Lehigh in each of the sets we lost and each one was at a crucial point late in the set. We then made matters worse by letting that one mistake snowball into the next several points. We can't make unforced errors like that late in the set, and we definitely can't allow one point to turn into three or four."
The opening set would be tied nine times and saw the lead change hands on four different occasions. Lehigh (9-9, 3-3 Patriot League) held a 17-16 lead when back-to-back attack errors by the Mountain Hawks gave Navy (6-16, 0-6 Patriot League) an 18-17 lead. Lauren Carpenter (Jr., Murphy, Texas) knocked down a kill to make the score 19-17 a Lehigh ball-handling error gave the Mids their 20th pont. Lehigh scored when Courtney McCutchan recorded a kill of her own, but a Lehigh service error gave the Mids a 21-18 lead and then Carpenter posted another kill to give Navy a four-point cushion. Jenny Rudewicz (Sr., Winter Garden, Fla.) committed a service error of her own, but back-to-back kills by Navy's Erin Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) and Veronica Ffrench (Fr., Milton, Fla.) were followed by Fortner and Kaitlin Roseti (Jr., Williamsville, N.Y.) teaming for a block to allow the Mids to close out the set.
Lehigh was able to separate itself from Navy in the middle part of the second set as it built an 18-12 lead. The Mids slowly chipped away at the deficit to soon close to within 21-20 and cause Lehigh to call timeout. A soft serve by Navy's Holly Berger (Jr., Claremont, Calif.) allowed Lehigh's Angelika Kopacz to post a kill to make it a two-point set, then Taylor Poole dropped in a service ace for the Mountain Hawks to make the score 23-20. Navy closed to within 23-22 on a kill from Maida Kalic' (Jr., Vernon, N.Y.) and an attack error by Lehigh's Brittany Reichwein, but a kill by Kopacz and an attack error by Katie Bray (So., Cary, N.C.) -- on a very difficult ball to handle -- gave the Mountain Hawks the second set.
Lehigh edged its way out to a 14-11 lead midway through the third set, but the Mids quickly tallied three-straight points to tie the score and force the Mountain Hawks to call timeout. Carpenter returned to the service line for the Mids after the break in the action and she committed an error. Lehigh would capitalize on the mistake and run off the ensuing five points as well to build a 20-14 lead, which was enough of an advantage for the Mountain Hawks to hold on for the win.
The Mountain Hawks scored eight of the first 11 points of the fourth set to quickly take an 8-3 lead. Just as the Mids were able to do in the second set, they again clawed their way back into this frame. Lehigh held an 18-15 lead when a kill by Ffrench and a block by the tandem of Roseti and Kalic' made it a one-point set and caused Lehigh to call timeout. Christy Rapp (So., Royal Oak, Mich.) stepped back to the service line for the Mids and she committed an error of her own to give the serve back to Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks quickly tallied the next three points to give themselves a 22-17 lead, an advantage which they were able to make hold up.
Lehigh held slight advantages in the offensive statistics, while the Mids held equally small leads in the defensive statistics. The Mountain Hawks posted 53 kills, hit .193 and dropped in five aces, while the Mids recorded 45 kills, hit .167 and tallied three aces. Conversely, Navy grabbed 73 digs and totaled 9.0 team blocks to the 70 digs and 7.0 team blocks recorded by Lehigh.
Ffrench led all players in the match with 14 kills, Kalic' added 10 kills and Fortner recorded nine kills. Carpenter, Rudewicz and Berger finished with 17, 16 and 15 digs, respectively, while Roseti tallied five blocks in the match.
On the other side of the net, Poole led Lehigh with nine kills and Rachel Charles grabbed a match-high 20 digs.
Navy will be right back on the Wesley A. Brown Field House court Saturday at 12 Noon when the Mids play host to Lafayette.
