Sept. 14, 2010
Final Stats
BALTIMORE, Md. -- The Navy defense held Morgan State to a negative hitting percentage while Erin Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) totaled 11 kills and a .611 attack percentage to spark the Mids to a three-set victory Tuesday night at Hill Field House in Baltimore. The Mids won the non-conference volleyball match over the Bears by the scores of 25-18, 25-20, 25-17.
"We were able to get strong starts in each of the three sets tonight, and that made things a lot easier on us," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We not only were able to build cushions, we never let that lead get away from us."
Navy (4-7) quickly scored eight of the first nine points of the first set and never let its advantage dip below five points as the Mids claimed the first set.
The second set saw Morgan State (1-10) and Navy tied at several times up until 7-7. Navy then held a 9-8 lead before going on a 5-0 run to build a 14-8 advantage. The Navy edge would dip to three points at 16-13, at which point the Mids tallied five of the next six points to pull away from the Lady Bears.
Navy tried to quickly end the third set and the match by opening up early leads of 6-2 and 10-5, but Morgan State rallied and soon pulled to within two points of the Mids at 12-10. Fortner promptly notched a kill to spark a 6-0 run that put the match away.
"This was a good win for us tonight," said Schwob. "Morgan State's record may not be what it was last year, but they have the majority of their team back from last year's squad that beat us in three sets in our gym. This early part of the season is about measuring progress for us, so this was a good result. Now we have to maintain this level of play heading into the last weekend of non-conference play."
Though Navy totaled just one more kill than Morgan State did tonight (29-28), the Mids as a team finished with a .234 hitting percentage tonight while holding the Lady Bears to a -.011 percentage.
Fortner knocked down her 11 kills on 18 attempts without recording an attack error. She also added nine digs and a pair of blocks. Leading Navy's defense was Lauren Carpenter (Jr., Murphy, Texas), who tallied 12 digs and three blocks.
Morgan State's offense was led by Ashley Johnson and her 11 kills, while Dina Beamon hauled in 14 digs on the night for the Lady Bears.
Tonight's match ended a season-opening 11-match road trip for the Mids. Navy will play its first home matches of the season this weekend when the Mids play host to the Kristen Dickmann Memorial Tournament in the Wesley A. Brown Field House. Navy will play host to Hartford Friday at 7 p.m., before facing Howard Saturday at 12 Noon and UMES at 4 p.m.
