Oct. 16, 2010
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A 4-0 run midway through the fifth set provided enough of a cushion for the Navy volleyball team to hold off Lafayette Saturday afternoon at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis, Md. The Mids would narrowly prevail over the Leopards by scores of 25-21, 28-30, 16-25, 25-23 and 15-11.
"While our coaching staff and Lafayette's can look back at disappointment in some of the execution we saw in our players today, neither staff can question or be disappointed in the effort, determination, pride, passion and desire they saw in their players," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "Every point was a challenge, and all of the players on both sides played their hearts out. We feel fortunate to have come out on the winning side, but we have to give credit to Lafayette and recognize just how hard they equally battled throughout the match."
Navy quickly scored three of the first four points of the decisive fifth set and soon built a 6-2 advantage. Lafayette narrowed the margin down to one point at 6-5, which led to the teams trading the ensuing four points to give Navy an 8-7 lead. Nicole Salmon (Fr., Aurora, Ill.) promptly tallied kills on the ensuing two points to give Navy a 10-7 advantage. The cushion soon turned to 12-7 following a Lafayette attack error and a bad set by the Leopards. A Navy service error and a block of Maida Kalic' (Jr., Vernon, N.Y.) by Katrina Racibarskas allowed Lafayette to close to within 12-9. Lafayette gave the serve right back to the Mids on a service error of its own (13-9), but the Leopards would record the next two points on a kill by Alexandra Russo and an attack error by Navy's Erin Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) to make the score 13-11. Fortner answered with a kill to make the score 14-11, then she and Kaitlin Roseti (Jr., Williamsville, N.Y.) teamed up for a block to end the two-hour match.
Lafayette (4-17, 0-7 Patriot League) held a slim 16-13 advantage midway through the first set before Navy (7-16, 1-6) quickly scored three straight points to tie the score. The score would again be tied at 18-18 when a kill from Ndidi Ibe (So., North Richland Hills, Texas) and an attack error by Lafayette's Alana Taylor gave the Mids a 20-18 lead. The teams traded points until the Mids held a 22-20 lead at which point Maida Kalic' (Jr., Vernon, N.Y.) knocked down a kill to give the Mids a three-point lead. After Racibarskas posted a kill for Lafayette, Kalic' tallied back-to-back kills to allow the Mids to close out the set.
Navy tried to separate itself from Lafayette late in the second set by taking an 20-16 lead. The Mids still held a three-point cushion at 23-20 when a kill from Racibarskas started a 4-0 run for the Leopards. After their first opportunity to serve for the set was erased on a block by Fortner, they had another chance while serving with a 25-24 lead. That point was erased when Veronica Ffrench (Fr., Milton, Fla.) posted a kill for the Mids. Navy then had its first serve for the set at 26-25, but a kill from Kayly Elmer tied the score at 26-26. Ibe had an attack error on the next point, but she followed that with a kill to tie the score again at 27-27. Fortner fed Lauren Carpenter (Jr., Murphy, Texas) for a kill to give Navy second chance to serve for the set, but an attack error by Roseti tied the score for the 11th time in the set at 28-28. Karissa Ciliento would tally back-to-back kills for the Leopards to give Lafayette the second set.
Lafayette would carry that momentum over from the end of the second set into the start of the third set. The Leopards quickly jumped out to a 15-7 lead and never let the Mids into the frame.
The Leopards then tried to keep run away from Navy in the fourth set by taking an early lead of 11-7 that soon became 14-11. Navy would score seven of the next eight points to jump in front by the score of 18-15, and would go on to maintain a three-point lead at 21-18. The Leopards would narrow the margin down to one point at 22-21, but a service error by Sarah Frohnapfel gave Navy a two-point lead again. That difference was sliced in half again when Russo posted a kill for Lafayette. That was followed by a kill from Kalic', which allowed Navy to serve for the set with a 24-22 lead. The Leopards extended the set when Racibarskas tallied a kill, but Fortner posted a kill of her own to end the set and send the match into a fifth set.
"Being able to finish close sets has been a problem for us all season," said Schwob. "But we have been in so many of them we know what we need to do. The problem has been actually doing it, but today we finally made the plays down the stretch in the fourth and fifth sets. Our job now is to build off of this and carry our strong play of late into the second half of the Patriot League season."
Navy's defense held Lafayette to a hitting percentage of .175 or below in all but the third set (.324) on the way to limiting the Leopards to an overall mark of .190. Conversely, Navy hit .231 in the first set, was held to marks of .132 and .120 in the second and third sets, respectively, then hit .321 in the fourth set before posting a mark of .421 in the fifth set. All of that allowed the Mids to hit .216 over the course of the afternoon. Other than hitting percentage, the two teams played to a near standstill from a statistical standpoint. Navy totaled two more kills (61-59) on one fewer swing (163-162) than Lafayette had, and tallied 62 digs to 57 for the Leopards. Lafayette, in turn tallied four service aces to Navy's one and recorded 8.0 team blocks to Navy's 6.0.
Individually, Fortner and Kalic' both tallied 13 kills and hit .290 in the match, with Ibe finishing with 10 kills and a team-high attack percentage of .308. Each of those three players also posted a pair of blocks in the match, while Holly Berger (Jr., Claremont, Calif.) grabbed 17 digs and Jenny Rudewicz (Sr., Winter Garden, Fla.) dished out 28 assists while hauling in 12 digs for the Mids.
Lafayette's offense was equally balanced with a trio of Leopards finishing with double figure kill totals. Leading all players in the match was Elmer with 15 kills, while Racibarskas and Ciliento added 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
Navy will open the second half of its Patriot League season with home matches on Oct. 22 against Bucknell (7 p.m.) and Oct. 23 against Colgate (3 p.m.).
