Oct. 1, 2011

Final Stats

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Army outhit the Navy volleyball team by nearly 200 points in posting a 25-13, 25-18, 25-20 victory over the Midshipmen Saturday night at Gillis Field House in West Point, N.Y.

"Tonight gave us a recognition of what we are at going to see against good teams such as Army," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "We know what we have to do to figure things out."

Army (12-4, 3-1 Patriot League) broke open the first set when a 6-0 run gave it a 10-4 lead over Navy (6-13, 1-3). The Black Knights quickly expanded the margin to 20-9 before closing out the set and taking a 1-0 lead.

The second set was tied at 5-5 when a 4-0 run by Army gave it a 9-5 lead. The margin hovered between two and five points until the Black Knights built a 20-14 cushion. The two teams traded points over the remainder of the set as the Black Knights took a 2-0 lead.

The third set was close from very first serve. The score was tied 14 times and the lead changed hands on nine occasions. The score was knotted at 19-19 when back-to-back Army kills and a Navy ball-handling error gave the Black Knights a 22-19 lead. A service ace extended the Army lead to four points (23-19) before a kill by Navy's Veronica Ffrench (So., Milton, Fla.) made the score 23-20. A Navy service error took the Black Knights to match point (24-20), then an Army kill ended the match.

"We felt the tempo of the match became a little more favorable as the match went on," said Bock. "The longest runs we gave up in the last two sets were three or four points, and that is progress for us. We felt we could have some favorable blocking matchups, so we flipped some things later in the match."

Army posted an attack percentage of .250 in the match while limiting Navy to a mark of .068. The Black Knights also tallied five aces, 52 digs and seven blocks, while the Mids accrued two aces, 40 digs and six blocks.

"We didn't make as many crazy aggressive hitting errors tonight as we did Friday at Holy Cross," said Bock. "The ones we made last night were unacceptable; the ones we made tonight were aggressive, but they were aggressive in the right circumstances."

Four Mids tallied four kills in the match, with Holly Berger (Sr., Claremont, Calif.) grabbing 12 digs and Maida Kalic (Sr., Vernon, N.Y.) posting four blocks.

Army's Rachel Willis knocked down 16 kills and hit .684 on the night.

Navy will return to Annapolis for its next match, a Thursday night contest against American in the Wesley A. Brown Field House. A video stream of the match will be available to Navy All-Access subscribers.