Oct. 4, 2010
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy volleyball team recorded season highs in both attack percentage and service aces in a four-set victory over North Carolina A&T Monday night at Macdonough Hall in Annapolis, Md. The Mids, who were playing their third match in four days, defeated the Aggies by scores of 25-9, 25-21, 21-25, 25-10.
"We had a very good start to the match, but North Carolina A&T really cleaned up its play in the second set," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We responded well to the challenge of playing from behind in the second set to come away with the win, then we allowed a big run in the third set that put us in a late hole we could not dig ourselves out of. It was nice to see how we not only started the fourth set, but also our ability to keep the level of play high throughout the remainder of the set."
Navy (6-14) took control of the first set very quickly against a North Carolina A&T (2-19) team that played four freshman, one sophomore and one senior for the entire match. The Mids scored eight of the first nine points of the set on their way to building a 22-5 lead. Navy's offense hit .400 in the set while N.C. A&T tallied five kills and five attack errors on 22 swings.
The second set would be a vastly different story as the score was tied 11 times and the lead exchanged hands on eight occasions. The Aggies took a 19-16 lead, but the Mids quickly tied the score at 19-19. After N.C. A&T took a 20-19 lead with a kill, Navy ran off the ensuing five points to take a 24-20 advantage. A kill by Nicole Salmon (Fr., Aurora, Ill.) allowed Navy to tie the score, then Erin Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) dropped in back-to-back service aces to give Navy a 22-20 lead. After Ndidi Ibe (So., North Richland Hills, Texas) tallied a block for Navy's fourth straight point, an Aggie attack error closed out Navy's 5-0 run.
The momentum N.C. A&T had in the second set carried over into the third set. The Aggies held a 12-11 lead when they broke the set open with a 6-0 run that made the score 18-11. Navy climbed back to within three points at 20-17, 21-18 and 23-20, but was unable to cut into the margin any more.
Blocking and serving keyed the N.C. A&T run as the Aggies tallied five blocks and three service aces in the third set alone.
The Mids responded to the loss by jumping out to leads of 7-2 and 12-4 to open up a sizeable cushion over the Aggies in the fourth set. Navy hit a sizzing .577 in the set (18 kills, 3 errors, 26 attempts) while holding N.C. A&T to a mark of .227 (7 kills, 2 errors, 22 attempts).
Navy finished the match with a season-best attack percentage of .295 and a season-high 11 service aces to go along with 45 digs. Conversely, N.C. A&T tallied a hitting percentage of .101, five aces and 33 digs. The Aggies did hold a 12.0-6.0 edge in team blocks in the match.
Salmon led all players in the match with 11 kills, while Fortner recorded her fourth triple-double of the season with 10 kills, 18 assists and 10 digs to go along with an attack percentage of .350 and a trio of service aces. Additionally for the Mids, Ibe posted seven kills, hit .429 and recorded a pair of solo blocks, Maida Kalic' (Jr., Vernon, N.Y.) finished with nine kills and a hitting percentage of .316, Veronica Ffrench (Fr., Milton, Fla.) contributed seven kills and Holly Berger (Jr., Claremont, Calif.) tallied 14 digs and three service aces.
Elisha Boyer led the N.C. A&T offense with nine kills, while Amber Inman recorded 10 digs and 24 assists and Jeane Daniels posted eight blocks.
Navy will return to Patriot League action Thursday night when the Mids play at American in a 7 p.m. match. American will be offering a live video stream of the match for $5.95 on its web site, www.AUEagles.com(.)
