Nov. 15, 2014 Final Stats
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Contributions from throughout the lineup spurred the Navy volleyball team to a four-set victory over Army Saturday night at Gillis Field House in West Point, N.Y. The Mids, who had swept the Black Knights in three sets in the first meeting of the season between the teams, recorded a 25-16, 25-11, 23-25, 25-15 victory this evening.
The win gives Navy (14-11, 11-5 Patriot League) its first regular season series sweep of Army (14-15, 9-7) since the 2005 season and sends the Mids into next week's Patriot League Tournament as the No. 3 seed in the event. Navy needed to win just one set in tonight's match to garner the No. 3 seed in what will be the program's first post-season appearance in seven years. Army will be the No. 4 seed in the tournament that will be contested at the home of top-seeded American on Nov. 22-23. The Mids will face No. 2 seed Lehigh in one semifinal, with the Black Knights and the Eagles squaring off in the other match.
"We hit for some big numbers tonight," said Navy head coach Larry Bock, "and a lot of that was because we were really firing on all cylinders. Really, everyone was very good for us this evening. We were really good in transition tonight.
"There was another great crowd watching the match this evening. It looked as if every seat was filled. It was wonderful for the players and really good for the sport.
The Mids held an 8-7 lead early in the first set when a 3-0 burst gave them an 11-7 lead. The margin would hover between two and four points until another 3-0 run gave Navy a 21-15 lead. Tara Dotzauer (Fr., Raleigh, N.C.) started the latter spurt with a kill, then a service ace from Star Steele (Jr., Tampa, Fla.) made the margin 20-15 and led to an Army timeout. The Mids came out of the break in the action with a kill by Rachel Fortner (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) to close out the run.
After an Army kill, the Mids scored the ensuing four points -- three by way of Navy kills and one on an Army attack error -- to close out the first frame.
Navy carried that momentum into the second set as it quickly jumped out to leads of 4-1, 8-2 and 17-4 to separate itself from Army and take a 2-0 lead in sets.
The Mids held a .458-.095 advantage in hitting percentage through those two sets of play. That numbers would reverses themselves slightly in the third set as Army committed only one attack error in holding a .405-.255 lead in hitting percentage as the Black Knights won the third set.
The score would be tied 12 times and the lead change hands on five occasions in the set, and the largest lead either team held was two points until the Mids closed out a 3-0 run to take a 22-19 lead. Army responded to the deficit by tallying back-to-back kills, but a Gaby Smith (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) kill gave the Mids a 23-21 lead. The Black Knights again notched consecutive kills to tie the set, which led to a Navy timeout, but afterward a block by Army and another kill by the home team gave the Black Knights the third set.
"After the second set," said Bock, "we said that what we saw from Army wasn't going to happen again. We can't look back on the third set as anything except that Army just played lights out. I thought we played well, too. It had to be a fun set to watch."
Navy quickly quashed any thoughts of Army carrying that momentum over into the fourth set as the Mids used a 4-0 run to take a 7-3 lead early in the set. That cushion grew to six points at 11-5, seven points at 13-6 and soon 10 points at 18-8. Before long, the Mids ended the match, fittingly, with a kill by team captain Alex Cassel (Sr., Sandy, Utah).
Navy posted a hitting percentage of .373 this evening, which was not only the team's best mark of the year (.292 vs. Providence in the team's first match of the season), it also was the highest attack percentage posted by a Navy team in a four-set match in school history (previous high was .363 set in 2005). The Mids also held Army to a percentage of .164 in the match -- which included a .000 showing in the fourth set.
Navy also held statistical leads over Army in kills (60-46) and aces (6-1), with the two teams virtually tied in both digs (58-55 for Navy) and blocks (4-3 for Navy).
The Mids had great balance across its lineup as six players posted at least eight kills and three players snared at least 12 digs.
Dotzauer led Navy with 12 kills (.333 attack percentage), Katie Sylakowski (Jr., Escondido, Calif.) had 11 kills (.476), Smith finished with 10 kills (.381), Cassel had nine kills (.529) and Fortner posted eight kills (.316). Fortner also added 26 assists and 12 digs, Alli Graf (So., Annapolis, Md.) had 17 digs and Smith grabbed 15 digs to go along with two blocks. Additionally, Steele handed out 25 assists and dropped in two aces.
Carolyn Bockrath had a solid offensive night for Army as she finished with 12 kills and a .455 attack percentage.
Start times for the Patriot League Tournament will be announced in the coming days. Navy's No. 3 seed is the highest for the Mids since garnering the No. 2 seed in the 2005 edition of the championship.
Navy has assured itself of its first winning overall record since the 2008 season, this year marks the first time Navy will have posted winning Patriot League records in consecutive seasons since the 2004-05 seasons, and will be the first time the Mids will have tallied at least a .500 mark in league play in three-straight years since doing so in four-straight seasons from 1996-99.
"It was very rewarding to see four years of hard work pay off with tonight's win to cap the regular season," said Bock. "Now we want to keep it going. This win puts us in a position to attain our larger goals. We want to make some noise in the post season, but before we could do so we wanted to win tonight so we could use it as a springboard into next week."
