Final Stats

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. â€"â€" A strong all-around night by Gaby Smith (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) helped to spark the Navy volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over UMES, Friday night in Princess Anne, Md. The Mids (3-1) posted a 25-26, 25-14, 25-19 victory over the Hawks (4-2) on the first day of a two-day tournament at the school.

"Tonight's result was the combination of our playing really solid and UMES not having its 'A' game," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "We blocked well and that helped to get UMES a little impatient. When a team is solid with its passing and blocking, the other team's serving and hitting get a little overanxious and aggressive. That happened tonight."

Navy broke open the first set when a 6-0 run gave the Mids a 16-9 advantage. Smith had a hand in recording four of those six points on two kills, one block assist and one assist on a kill by Dorothy Murray (Jr., Harbor City, Calif.).

The Mids carried over that momentum into the start of the second set as they quickly jumped out to an 8-1 cushion and never let the lead dip below six points.

The third set was a different story. After Navy took a 3-0 lead, UMES scored the ensuing five points to regain the advantage. The score was tied at 7-7, but that was followed by the Hawks scoring each of the next three and five of the next seven points to take a 12-9 lead. A service error gave the serve back to the Mids, then Patricia Mattingly (So., New Albany, Ind.) dropped in an ace to close the margin down to one point. Back-to-back UMES ball handling errors gave the Mids the lead, then another ace by this week's Patriot League Player of the Week extended the Navy lead out to 14-12. Mattingly then set Smith and Murray on consecutive plays to take the run out to seven points, and it became eight in a row when an attack error by the Hawks made the score 17-12.

"Our passing settled down in the third set," said Bock. "It was no coincidence that it happened when we inserted Shelby McCool (Jr., Eugene, Ore.) into the lineup. She is just steady out there and calmed things down for us. When she shows up it usually is a change for the better."

Even with hitting just .174 in the third set, Navy still hit a more than respectable .267 on the night thanks to 30 kills and just 10 attack errors. Defensively, the Mids limited the Hawks to 20 kills and a .058 attack percentage. That was due in some measure to Navy tallying 7.0 blocks and 42 digs to 4.5 blocks and 30 digs for UMES. The Mids also recorded six aces and eight service errors to three aces and 16 miscues from the service line by the Hawks.

"UMES is a real powerful team that runs a quick offense," said Bock. "We just had better ball control tonight and played a more mistake free match. They also missed a lot of serves they had been making.

"Patricia did a real nice job with her setting. She really had their blockers leaning. Great floor balance with her sets."

Mattingly handed out 22 assists and added eight blocks and three aces. Four different Mids had at least four kills, with Smith's nine kills â€"â€" and one attack error on 20 swings (.400) â€"â€" leading all players. Close behind was Murray with five kills and zero attack errors on 12 attempts (.412). Smith also accounted for two aces, seven digs and three blocks.

"Gaby had a lot of success on tough sets in transition," said Bock. "They were not in a slow dig, pass, set sequence we sometimes have. Tonight it was fast. Dorothy was really strong for us at siding out. She hit the ball high and hard and was a formidable player to go against tonight.

"Both of them were very good at off-the-block digs. Getting more digs out of that off-the-block, front-row position has been a real project for us. Those two had a lot of hidden, important digs for us."

Additional defensive numbers of note were Sydney Shearn (So., Louisville, Ky.) with nine digs, Olivia Kluger (Jr., Carmel, Ind.) with seven digs, and Katie Patrick (So., Aurora, Colo.) with three blocks.

"Sydney didn't have a ton of digs for a libero," said Bock, "but most of the ones she did have were key."

Navy will remain in Princess Anne overnight to play Rider Saturday at 1 p.m. and Norfolk State at 5 p.m.