Final Stats

BALTIMORE, Md. â€"â€" The Navy volleyball team closed its regular season by recording a 3-0 victory over Loyola Sunday afternoon in Baltimore. The Mids (20-8, 10-6 Patriot League) posted a 25-18, 25-16, 25-19 victory over the Greyhounds (6-21, 3-13).

Navy, which secured its berth in the four-team Patriot League Tournament on Saturday, will be seeded fourth in the event and face top-seed American this coming Saturday at 1 p.m. in Washington, D.C.

The 2016 Mids become the first Navy team to win 20 matches in a single season since the 2007 squad won 21. Also, this is just the third Navy team to win at least 10 league matches in a year since the double round-robin schedule was instituted starting with the 1999 campaign. Navy's 2004 team won 10 league matches while the 2014 squad won 11.

"This was one of our more important efforts of the season," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "The playoff berth was attained, and our seed wasn't moving up or down no matter how today went. The players all knew that, but we still looked at today's match the same way we did yesterday (a 3-1 win at Lafayette) and that is as a playoff match. We have some momentum going right now and we really wanted to keep the train moving down the tracks. Mission accomplished for today."

Navy had several opportunities to separate itself from Loyola in the first set, but needed a 5-1 run that gave it a 19-13 lead to finally do so.

The start of the second set was equally close. Loyola held an 8-7 lead when a 4-0 burst gave the Mids an 11-8 advantage. Navy slowly edged its way out to a 17-10 lead to give it enough breathing room from the Greyhounds.

The Mids totaled 17 kills and just one attack error in hitting .471 in the second frame. Navy needed every one of those kills as Loyola hit .300, but had 12 kills and three attack errors.

Navy held a precarious lead for most of the third set. The Mids had advantages of 10-8, 12-10 and 16-14 before a 3-1 spurt gave them a 19-15 cushion that the Greyhounds couldn't really slice into anymore.

Navy held statistical advantages over Loyola in kills (44-32), hitting percentage (.333-.160), aces (7-2). The Mids gathered in 42 digs and had five blocks while the Greyhounds tallied 41 digs and five blocks of their own.

"It was a very steady performance today," said Bock. "We serve and pass the ball well and we don't make mistakes. That's been our calling card all season and was again today."

Wing hitter Tara Dotzauer (Jr., Raleigh, N.C.) recorded 12 kills and a .360 attack percentage, while outside hitter Maggie Phillips (Jr., Leesburg, Va.) had eight kills and posted a .444 attack percentage. Also having a productive all-around match was outside hitter Gaby Smith (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.), who totaled five kills, 10 digs and three service aces.

"Our pin hitters were very, very good," said Bock. "That's in contrast to Saturday where our middles controlled the geography of the net."