Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" Colgate rallied to win the last two sets of the match to defeat the Navy volleyball in five sets Saturday afternoon at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis, Md. The Raiders (14-9, 5-6 Patriot League) defeated the Mids (19-6, 9-3), 18-25, 29-27, 22-25, 25-20, 15-10.

Colgate has now won five of its last six matches after starting league play with a 0-5 record. Navy suffered its first home loss of the season and saw its record fall to 1-4 overall and 0-3 in league matches that have been extended into five sets.

"It turned into a match where out-of-system offense was the deciding factor," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "There were more plays for both teams where they were scrambling around than when they had the chance to run a set offense. Colgate did a better job at running those types of plays than we did."

Navy jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the first set and never relinquished it in winning the opening set.

Colgate took a 24-22 lead in set two only to see Navy take a 25-24 lead. The Mids would have three serves to win the set before the Raiders won the frame on their third chance to serve for the stanza.

The teams also went point-for-point in set three as the score was tied 14 times and the lead changed hands seven times. Colgate led 22-21 when a kill by Maddi Sgattoni (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) tied the frame. She then dropped back to serve and recorded an ace to give the Mids the lead. A block by Dorothy Murray (Sr., Harbor City, Calif.) took Navy to set point, which it converted on a Colgate attack error.

Colgate took a slim 10-7 lead early in the fourth set and soon expanded it to 15-10. Navy closed to within two points at 19-17 but could not get any closer.

The Raiders scored the opening two points of the fifth set and jumped out to a 7-4 lead. Navy sliced the gap down to one point at 9-8 and 10-9, but a quick 3-0 run by the Raiders gave them the cushion they needed.

"We knew coming into today that we needed to play a very clean match to come out ahead," said Bock. "We started off okay with that, but the errors seemed to grow as the match went on. You have to be the more efficient team than we were to win a point-for-point match against a good team."

Colgate outhit the Mids .254-.196 in the match. Navy hit .355 in winning set one but never surpassed .178 (set four) in the remaining frames. Conversely, the Raiders hit at least .239 in all but set three when they tallied a mark of .167. Colgate posted 72 kills to Navy's 60 and led 79-66 in digs.

Much of Navy's offense was generated at the service line as the Mids totaled 12 aces and allowed just three.

Sgattoni led Navy with 16 kills, which was one more than fellow outside hitter Maggie Phillips (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) recorded. Libero Sydney Shearn (Jr., Louisville, Ky.) snared 19 digs and dropped in three aces while setter Patricia Mattingly (Jr., New Albany, Ind.) accounted for 48 assists, 18 digs, four aces and two blocks.

Navy will play each of its next three matches on the road, starting with a Friday night tilt at Bucknell.