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ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" Balance and depth rallied the Navy volleyball team to a five-set victory over Bucknell, Saturday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis. The Mids overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in sets to defeat the Bison, 22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-15, 15-13, and allow Navy to record its fourth-straight victory.

It was no great surprise that tonight's match was extended into five sets. Each of the last four meetings between the teams have gone five sets as have seven of the last 11 matches played in the series. Additionally, tonight's contest was Navy's seventh five-set match of the season, but marked the first victory for the Mids in a five-set affair.

"Being able to win a close, five-set match such as this is big for the progress and psyche of this team," said Navy head coach Larry Bock, whose team moved into fifth place in the Patriot League standings with tonight's victory. "We have been in a lot of matches like tonight this year, but hadn't been able to come away with the win until this evening. To say we look forward to playing in matches like this wouldn't be accurate, but we are starting to feel more comfortable in these uncomfortable scenarios.

"My coaching staff of Steph Strauss handling the offense and Kait Kozak the defense really deserve a lot of credit for tonight."

The score was tied 11 times and the lead changed hands on four occasions in the decisive fifth frame, with the largest lead for either team in the set being two points. Navy (6-17, 4-6 Patriot League) took the first two-point advantage of the set when a Shelby McCool (So., Eugene, Ore.) kill gave Navy a 9-7 lead. Bucknell (10-11, 4-7) called timeout and immediately scored back-to-back points to tie the score at 9-9. The teams traded sideouts over the ensuing seven plays to make the score 13-12 in favor of Navy.

That margin grew to 14-12 following a Bucknell attack error, but shrunk to 14-13 when Hannah Hirzel's (Fr., Fullerton, Calif.) swing on a Bison overpass was blocked by Meghan Wentzel. Wentzel promptly went back to the service line for the Bison. Her offering was dug by Rachel Fortner (So., Villa Hills, Ky.), who passed the ball to Patricia Mattingly (Fr., New Albany, Ind.), who fed Gaby Smith (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) on the left wing. Smith sliced the ball off the Bucknell blockers for her third kill of the last set and the final point of the over two-hour match.

Navy started the match very slowly as Bucknell quickly took leads of 10-4, 11-5 and 19-10 in the first set. The Mids were able to chip away at the deficit and soon trailed by just two points at 19-17. The margin hovered between two and three points until Navy closed to within one at 23-22 on a Bucknell attack error. A Bison kill and ensuing Bucknell ace gave the visitors the first set.

"I thought Bucknell had an excellent gameplan for a first-swing offense tonight," said Bock. "They served the ball well and into the correct spots."

The second set started off the same as the first with Bucknell quickly taking a 6-3 lead. Navy answered by scoring the next five points to take an 8-6 lead of its own. The score was tied at 9-9 and would go on to be tied at every ensuing number except 14-14 through 18-18. A Hirzel kill, a Bison attack error and a kill by Maggie Phillips (So., Leesburg, Va.) gave Navy a 21-18 lead. Navy soon took a 23-20 lead only to see Bucknell tie it again at 23-23. Mattingly fed Smith for a kill to take the Mids to set point, which they converted when the Bison were whistled for lining up out of rotation on the ensuing serve.

Navy held a slim 7-5 lead in the third set only to see Bucknell quickly take a 12-7 advantage. The Mids were able to close to within three points of the Bison on several occasions until a 3-0 run by Bucknell gave it a 22-16 lead, which soon grew to 24-19. Back-to-back points by the Mids whittled the margin down to 24-21, but a Navy attack error thwarted its run.

Navy showed no hangover effect from the third set as the Mids rattled off the first five points of set number four. Bucknell rallied slightly and closed to within 13-10, but the Mids scored the next five points to separate themselves for the remainder of the frame and force a fifth set.

"I give our team a lot of credit for pushing the accelerator down to the floor early in the fourth set and just keeping it there the entire time," said Bock. "We needed that effort to get us into a fifth set."

Navy as a team held significant statistical advantages over Bucknell in kills (68-48), digs (79-54) and hitting percentage (.218-.167), while the Bison held leads over the Mids in aces (10-8) and blocks (14-9). Over the last two sets, Navy knocked down 26 kills and hit .230 while limiting Bucknell to 13 kills and a .154 attack percentage. The Mids also recorded sideouts on 73 percent and 78 percent of Bucknell's serves in the fourth and fifth sets, respectively.

Each of Navy's six primary hitters â€"â€" plus setter Mattingly â€"â€" recorded at least seven kills in the match, while four of the team's primary passers â€"â€" plus Mattingly â€"â€" snared at least 10 digs.

Offensively, Dorothy Murray (So., Habor City, Calif.) led all players on the night with 18 kills. She also added a .333 attack percentage. Both Smith and Phillips contributed 10 kills, Katie Patrick (Fr., Aurora, Calif.) had eight kills and the trio of Mattingly, Hirzel and McCool â€"â€" who didn't take to the court until late in the third set â€"â€" each accrued seven kills. Helping that balance was Mattingly, who dished out 54 assists.

Navy's defense was paced by Smith with 17 digs and Fortner with 13 digs. Mattingly snared 12 digs while Maeve Drummey (Sr., Silver Spring, Md.) and Darby Minton (Fr., Chino Hills, Calif.) each had 10 digs. As for Navy's blocking efforts, Patrick totaled five blocks, Phillips had three blocks and Smith ended the night with two blocks.

"One of the aspects of this team that had us so excited at the start of the season was the depth we envisioned having," said Bock. "All of the injuries we endured to key returning players hampered our record, but it did allow our new players to gain very valuable playing time. Now that we are starting to become healthy again and have a fuller rosterwe can turn to, we are seeing the experience gained by those players start to pay off.

"This truly was a 'team' win for us tonight. Our bench provided a huge lift. Being able to turn to Shelby and Darby with confidence was great. And Dorothy played really well again. She is just starting to scratch the surface of her abilities, which is a little scary."

Blake Buchholz led Bucknell in both kills and digs with 14 and 13, respectively, while Erika Eastley and seven blocks and Karen Campbell had six.

"To hold Campbell and Eastley to 10 kills each and both to a hitting percentage of less than .200 hitting was big for us," said Bock.

Navy will take to the road for a pair of matches next week. The Mids will play Tuesday at American and Oct. 31 at Colgate.