Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. ---- The Navy volleyball team did just enough to narrowly edge Holy Cross in five very close sets Saturday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House. The Mids (13-5, 3-3 Patriot League) escaped with a 29-27, 21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 15-12 victory over the Crusaders (5-14, 1-5).

"So much credit to Holy Cross for an exceptional match," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "They played us wonderfully. It was a typical Navy-Holy Cross match; long points, long sets, long match. That's a real good team. I know we will very much have our hands full again when we go to their place. We found ways to survive, but barely.

"It was every bit as important to win this match as it was our match last night against Army (the MIds defeated the Black Knights in three sets in the Star Match)."

It was nearly one year ago to the day (Oct. 9, 2015) that Navy and Holy Cross also played a five-set match. The Crusaders would come out ahead of the Mids by the score of 15-10 in the fifth set in last year's match that was played at Worcester, Mass.

The score in tonight's match ---- which also came one day after Holy Cross won a four-set decision at Lafayette ---- was tied 47 times and the lead was exchanged 15 times. The only time either team had more than a four-point lead was when the Mids closed the second set on a 7-0 run to win by eight points. Otherwise, the teams were within striking distance of each other for the entire two-hour, 20-minute match that saw Navy tally 113 points and Holy Cross 106.

The shortened fifth set alone saw eight ties and two lead changes. Holy Cross held a pair of early two-point leads in the final set, 4-2 and 5-3, but the Mids were able to tie the score at 5-5. The teams traded scores over the next several points until the Crusaders took a 7-6 lead. Navy ran off the ensuing three points to take a 9-6 lead, but that was answered by Holy Cross with a 3-0 run of its own to tie the frame again. The next four points were again exchanged, which made the score 11-11.

Another sideout followed when Sarena Seelbach (Fr., Chapel Hill, N.C.) notched a kill to give Navy a 12-11 lead. Mandy Sifferlen committed an attack error on the next play to give the Mids a 13-11 lead. After a Holy Cross timeout, Navy returned the point to the Crusaders on a service error (13-12). Another Seelbach kill took the Mids to match point with a 14-12 lead. After another timeout by the Crusaders, a lengthy point ensued and it, the set and the match came to an end on Seelbach's fifth kill of the frame.

Most of the statistics between the teams in the final box score were pretty even. Navy's offense totaled 70 kills and a .222 attack percentage on 194 swings, while Holy Cross posted 61 kills and hit .228 on 189 attempts. Both teams recorded six aces, Navy held an 84-78 lead in digs and Holy Cross won the battle at the net with 11 blocks to seven for the Mids.

While the team statistics were fairly equal, several individual numbers jump off the page. Sifferlen totaled 29 kills and just six attack errors on 82 attempts (.280). Her kill total broke the Wesley A. Brown Field House record by one for the most kills in a match by a player in the nine-year old facility, while her attempt total shattered the previous venue standard of 58. She accounted for 47.5 percent of the Holy Cross kills and 43.4 percent of the team's attempts.

Navy setter Patricia Mattingly (So., New Albany, Ind.) not only handed out 58 assists ---- tying her for both the second-most helpers by any player in the facility and the sixth-most by a Mid in school history ---- she also grabbed 28 digs in the match. That latter total is the most tallied in a match by a Navy setter in the 15-year rally scoring era and ties her for the ninth-most digs by any Mid at any position in school history.

Seelbach entered tonight's match with 18 kills this season. Despite not playing until the start of the third set this evening, she still managed to tally 14 kills and a .440 hitting percentage.

Seelbach shared the Navy lead in kills with Gaby Smith (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Dorothy Murray (Jr., Harbor City, Calif.), while Katie Patrick (So., Aurora, Colo.) added 11 kills. Defensively, passers Sydney Shearn (So., Louisville, Ky.) had 17 digs and three aces and Darby Minton (So., Chino Hills, Calif.) had 15 digs and two aces. Additionally, Murray had four blocks with Seelbach, Smith and Patrick each totaling two blocks.

"Sarena provided us with a huge lift," said Bock. "Katie and Gaby were stalwarts tonight. And Dorothy was Dorothy with her kills. Patricia found a way to hold the whole thing in place for us. I suspect that, No. 1, Patricia is really tired, and No. 2, she is a whole lot better as a complete setter after this weekend.

"Something Holy Cross did which we may see a lot of this season is making Patricia play a lot of first contacts. That took us out of our offense in a big way, and is something we have to work on."

Following a five-set loss (15-13 in the final set) to Army West Point on Oct. 10, 2015, the Mids had an overall record of 2-17 and a league mark of 0-6 for the 2015 season. Since that defeat to the Black Knights, Navy has put together an overall record of 20-8 and a league mark of 10-6 and has been the lone league team to take one set in a match off of American in multiple matches (two).

"We were 2-17 after this very same weekend a year ago," said Bock. "It is a gigantic credit to this group that they have come over that hill a whole lot stronger, better and tougher. But there is still more we have the capability of doing."

Navy will be back on the Wesley A. Brown Field House court Tuesday night when the Mids play host to Lafayette at 7 p.m.