Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" One of the Navy volleyball team's better serving and passing nights of the season boosted the Mids to a three-set sweep of Bucknell Saturday afternoon at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis. The Mids (16-3, 6-0 Patriot League) recorded a 25-8, 25-15, 25-19 victory over the Bison (8-9, 2-3).

Navy has now won seven-straight matches overall, which sets a new Navy record for the most consecutive victories as a Division I program (since 1991), and six-straight league matches, which ties the school standard for the most league wins in a row that was set last season.

The Mids took control of the first set very early. The Bison held a 3-2 lead when a kill by Sarena Seelbach (So., Chapel Hill, N.C.) returned the serve to Navy. Darby Minton (Jr., Chino Hills, Calif.) dropped back to serve with the score knotted at 3-3, and her final serve came with Navy holding a 9-3 edge. The Mids soon led by scores of 15-6 and 19-8 before scoring the final six points of the frame.

Maddi Sgattoni (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) attempted the final five serves of the first set and prompted notched a kill on the opening point of the second set. She would then return to the service line for a trio of serves, with her final service coming with the Mids holding a 3-0 advantage. That lead would grow to 7-2 when Minton again returned to the service line from which she increased the advantage out to 10-2. Navy eventually took a 19-9 lead before the Bison made a brief run of their own before the Mids closed out the frame.

Navy's offense totaled 28 kills and a .328 hitting percentage through two sets of play, while its defense limited Bucknell to nine kills a .000 attack percentage through that point in the match.

"We just served the ball real well the whole time," said Navy head coach Larry Bock on the reason for the success of the Mids in the first two sets. "That kept Bucknell out of system. The middle hitters were able to find some daylight."

The third set would be different as Bucknell's late success in the second set gave the Bison some momentum in the third set. Navy tried to separate early as it had in sets one and two by building a 4-1 advantage, but Bucknell rallied to tie the stanza at 9-9 and soon took leads of 11-10, 13-11 and 14-12. Tara Dotzauer (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) posted a kill to pull the Mids to within one point, then Minton returned to the service line where her final attempt was with the Mids holding a 15-14 lead.

"Darby is a very important piece of our puzzle right now," said Bock. "She just serves the ball real hard. She reads well back there (as a defender), makes hard things look easy and inspires some confidence on the court. She has that demeanor that leads to us settling down when she is on the floor."

The Navy lead would reach three points at 19-16 before back-to-back points by the Bison made the score 19-18. The teams traded sideouts to make the score 20-19, then Dotzauer recorded another kill to double the advantage. Sgattoni went back to serve and the Mids scored on her first effort when Maggie Phillips (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) tallied a kill. A Bucknell ball-handling error made the score 23-19, then Sgattoni dropped in back-to-back service aces to finish out the frame and the match.

"Bucknell got into a rhythm toward the end of set two," said Bock, "and I think we saw the real Bucknell team in set three."

Navy scored points on 31 of Bucknell's 43 serves, with half of those 12 points recorded by the Bison coming in set number three. Conversely, the Mids scored points on 44 of their 74 offerings from the service line.

The Mids ended the match holding advantages over the Bison in kills (42-21), hitting percentage (.326-.103), assists (39-20) and digs (46-31), with Bucknell leading Navy in blocks (6-4) and both teams recording five service aces.

"If we can make our opponents feel as if it is real hard to get the ball on the floor, we will win the rally," said Bock. "We don't necessarily hit the ball real hard. We're going to win the long rallies if we continue to have this kind of ball control."

Individually, Dotzauer led the Mids with 10 kills and ranked second on the team in hitting percentage with her mark of .381. Pacing Navy in hitting percentage was Katie Patrick (Jr., Aurora, Colo.), who totaled nine kills and no errors on 13 attempts for a mark of .692. Sgattoni matched Patrick's kill total, hit .333 herself and recorded four service aces.

"Any time we were able to get the ball into the middles or to Tara, the rally was pretty much over," said Bock.

Sydney Shearn (Jr., Louisville, Ky.) snared a match-high 13 digs, with Minton adding 10 digs to her stats line. Meanwhile, Seelbach finished the contest with a team-best three blocks.

Sophie Bullard led Bucknell's offense with five kills and Celeste Barker recorded three blocks to lead the Bison defense.

Navy will close out a stretch of three matches in five days Tuesday when the Mids play host to Lehigh â€"â€" which is tied for second place in the league standings with a 5-1 record â€"â€" at 7 p.m. in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.

Patriot League Standings (next league match)
1 â€" 6-0 â€" Navy (Tuesday vs. Lehigh)
T2 â€" 5-1 â€" American (Friday at Bucknell)
T2 â€" 5-1 â€" Lehigh (Tuesday at Navy)
4 â€" 3-2 â€" Army West Point (Sunday at Holy Cross)
T5 â€" 2-3 â€" Bucknell (Sunday at Loyola)
T5 â€" 2-3 â€" Loyola (Sunday vs. Loyola)
T7 â€" 1-5 â€" Lafayette (Friday vs. Colgate)
T7 â€" 1-5 â€" Colgate (Friday at Lafayette)
9 â€" 0-5 â€" Holy Cross (Sunday vs. Army West Point)