Final Stats

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. ---- The Navy volleyball team's offense struggled to find a consistent rhythm in a 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-19) loss to St. John's Friday afternoon at McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia. The match was the first of the 2015 season for both teams and opened up play at the Crowne Plaza West Philadelphia Temple Invitational.

"We felt our passing would dictate how this match ---- and our season ---- would go, and today it did," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "We could have scripted the result. When our first contacts were decent, we could put the ball away; when they were not so good, we struggled hitting. Our out-of-system ball control was lacking."

Navy's seven-player (including libero) starting lineup featured three freshmen ---- Katie Patrick (Aurora, Colo.), Hannah Hirzel (Fullerton, Calif.) and Darby Minton (Chino Hills, Calif.) ---- and two others ---- Tara Dotzauer (So., Raleigh, N.C.) and Olivia Kluger (So., Carmel, Ind.) ---- who between them had totaled eight career starts. The Mids did start senior Star Steele (Tampa, Fla.) at setter, but she gave way to freshman Patricia Mattingly (New Albany, Ind.) very early in the first set after suffering an ankle injury.

That inexperience allowed a veteran St. John's team to quickly jump out to a 10-5 advantage on its way to winning the opening set.

The Red Storm built several leads of over five points in the second frame, but the Mids winnowed the margin down to as few as three points on a number of occasions ---- 11-8, 15-12, 20-17 ---- before St. John's was able to close out the frame and take a 2-0 lead.

Navy put together a nice run in the early part of the third set. The Mids used a 6-2 run to turn a 6-6 tie into a 12-8 lead. However, the Red Storm quickly went on an 11-1 spurt of their own to take a 19-13 advantage. The teams pretty much played sideout volleyball over the remainder of the set to conclude the match.

St. John's totaled 37 kills and a .303 attack percentage and held Navy's offense to 30 kills and a .067 hitting percentage. Aiding Navy's low hitting numbers was the Red Storm tallying 12 blocks to just three for the Mids. That blocking helped negate Navy holding a 36-33 edge in digs.

Hirzel and Smith both notched a Navy-best nine kills on the afternoon, with Hirzel adding a team-high .333 attack percentage and Dotzauer hitting .312.

"Hannah and Tara were our in-system hitters," said Bock. "Our passing didn't allow for the volume of solid sets to our wings that we needed. That led to us making a lot of crazy aggressive hitting errors out there. But I would rather have aggressive attempts than timid ones."

Minton's 11 digs and seven digs from Kluger led the efforts of the Navy passers.

The St. John's offense was led by Karin Palgutova's 13 kills.

The Mids will continue play in Philadelphia Saturday with matches at 10 a.m. against No. 13 Oregon (live stats at NavySports.com) and at 1 p.m. against tournament-host Temple (live stats and free live video).