Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" A pair of victories Saturday, one somewhat comfortably and another by the slimmest of margins, allowed the Navy (3-0) volleyball team to open its 2017 season by winning the Kristen Dickmann Invitational held this weekend at Alumni Hall in Annapolis. The Mids, who began the year with a 3-0 victory over Akron Friday night, recorded a 3-0 win (25-18, 25-16, 25-9) over Saint Francis U. Saturday morning and posted a five-set victory (25-18, 22-25, 20-25, 25-20, 18-16) over Maryland Eastern Shore Saturday night.

Navy's 3-0 record on the weekend gave the Mids the title in their own tournament for the first time since 2008. Maryland Eastern Shore, Saint Francis U. and Akron each posted 1-2 records this weekend, but the tiebreaker of the best margin of sets won between the tied teams in head-to-head matches placed the Hawks second, the Red Flash third and the Zips fourth.

Navy's Tara Dotzauer (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Kristen Dickmann Invitational. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Maddi Sgattoni (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Patricia Mattingly (Jr., New Albany, Ind.).

"We are pleased with the results from today and this entire weekend," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "We had to work for every point out there, which is what you want to have happen on the first weekend of the season. We saw players respond when called upon, and that too is nice to occur, especially on the first weekend of the year. Our to-do list both grew and shortened in different areas from the start of the weekend to the end of it."

The Mids trailed Akron for a total of three points in Friday's match, but quickly found themselves down 3-0 to the Red Flash in the opening set of this morning's contest. Navy tied the frame at 4-4 and, after the score was tied at 7-7, went on a 3-0 run to take the lead for good. The score was 12-10 in favor of the Mids when they scored six of the next seven points to build an 18-11 advantage.

Navy jumped out to leads of 2-0, 4-1 and 7-3 on its way to taking an 18-7 lead in the second set. The lead never dipped below nine points over the remainder of the frame.

The Mids then built an 8-3 lead in the third set and kept extending it throughout the remainder of the frame.

"We discussed needing to come into the batters box swinging and not sit there waiting for mistakes in pitches against Saint Francis," said Bock. "And then we fell behind 3-0 at the very start of the match. But we righted things and did a better job of forcing the issue and not waiting for mistakes to be made on the other side of the net. We cannot sit back and wait for our opponents to self-destruct; we have to keep the pressure on when in situations calling for that approach."

Navy posted hitting percentages pf .312, .258 and .579, respectively, in the three sets to record an overall mark of .354. That was in sharp contrast to the .020 percentage tallied by Saint Francis. The Mids also led the Red Flash in kills (38-27), aces (5-2), digs (42-32) and blocks (9-2).

Individually, Sgattoni led the Navy offense with eight kills and had just one attack error on her 16 swings for an overall hitting performance of .438. Katie Patrick (Jr., Aurora, Colo.) also hit well as she recorded five kills and one error on eight attempts for a percentage of .500. Additionally, Dorothy Murray (Sr., Harbor City, Calif.) had seven kills and a .312 attack percentage and Maggie Phillips (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) had six kills and no errors on 10 swings for a .600 hitting effort.

Sparking the Navy defense were Sydney Shearn (Jr., Louisville, Ky.) with 13 digs, Olivia Kluger (Sr., Carmel, Ind.) with nine digs and Patrick with six blocks.

Navy returned to the court for its match against Maryland Eastern Shore with about six and half hours of rest. Conversely, the Hawks matched up against the Mids only a little more than three hours after the conclusion of a five-set loss to Akron.

The Mids used a 6-0 spurt to take a 16-9 lead over the Hawks in the opening set. Maryland Eastern Shore was able to winnow the margin down to as few as three points several times, but the Mids were able to stave them off to take a 1-0 lead in sets.

The largest lead for either team in the second set was three points, with Navy's last such advantage coming at 16-13. The score would be tied at 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 before the Mids took a 22-21 lead. A kill by Iva Vujosevic tied the score at 22, then a block by the Hawks gave them a one-point lead. That advantage doubled on another kill by Vujosevic, with another block giving Maryland Eastern Shore the second set.

The scored in the second set was tied 11 times and the lead changed hands on six occasions. The third set was very similar as the score was knotted at 10 different points and there were seven exchanges of the lead. Navy held a 15-11 lead only to see Maryland Eastern Shore rally to take a 17-16 lead. The Mids soon trailed 19-18 when a Vujosevic kill, a Navy attack error, an ace by the Hawks and a block by Maryland Eastern Shore gave the visitors a 23-18 lead, which was enough of a cushion to the secure the set.

Navy went on a 5-0 run early in the fourth set to take a 12-8 lead. The score would be tied at both 16 and 20 before a Sgattoni kill sparked a 5-0 set-closing run by the Mids. After the effort by Sgattoni gave the Mids the 21-20 lead, a Murray kill and a Maryland Eastern Shore attack error made the score 23-20 in favor of the Mids. That was followed by a Patrick kill and a block by the tandem of Patrick and Murray to send the match into a fifth set.

The final frame saw the Hawks go on a 5-0 run to take a 10-5 lead. A kill by Dotzauer made the score 10-6, then Darby Minton (Jr., Chino Hills, Calif.) entered the court to serve. A bad set by the Hawks and a Dotzauer kill made the score 10-8 and led to a timeout being called by Maryland Eastern Shore. Sgattoni and Patrick promptly teamed up for a block to pull the Mids to within one point at 10-9. Navy would eventually tie the score at 11 (attack error by the Hawks), 12 (kill by Sgattoni) and 13 (kill by Patrick).

Vujosevic then recorded a kill to take the Hawks to match point with a 14-13 lead. Navy answered again when the Hawks were called for a blocking error on an attempt by Murray. Paige Miles (So., Oklahoma City, Calif.) dropped back to serve for the Mids and delivered an ace to give Navy a 15-14 lead and its first chance to serve for the match. This time the Hawks answered with a kill by Lucia Babic to tie the frame at 15.

Phillips made the score 16-15 Navy when she posted a kill, but that was answered by a kill from the Shore's Kristin Fink to tie the score for the ninth time in the set. Dotzauer delivered another kill â€"â€" her third of the set â€"â€" to once again take the Mids to match point. This time Navy converted the opportunity when the Hawks had trouble handling a pass on their side of the court.

"That was a team effort," said Bock of the fifth set. "I thought Darby came up huge. She started serving at 6-10 and she got us three big points. Also, Tara came up big and Maddi is playing way beyond her years. It is really hard to point to one person as being the reason we won. Tara was the MVP of the tournament and that was earned in tough circumstances in the latter part of the match and especially the fifth set, but there were contributions made from so many players down the stretch in ways that were noticeable and not so recognizable that it would be hard to mention everyone.

"This was a benchmark kind of contest for this young team. Any chance we have to play five sets, any chance we have to win in five sets, any chance we have to win in five sets and come from behind in that fashion is a means to a greater end, and that's really important. This team will believe a little more in itself, and there is already a quiet confidence about them and hopefully will turn into some swagger."

The statistics between the teams over the course of the two-hour and 15-minute match were pretty similar. Navy held a slight lead in kills (72-67), while Maryland Eastern Shore led in hitting percentage (.265-.243), aces (5-4), digs (64-63) and blocks (10-9).

Dotzauer led the Mids with 17 kills and a .342 attack percentage, while Sgattoni tallied 16 kills and 12 digs. Joining the duo with double-figure kills were Murray and 11 and Patrick with 10 (and a .400 attack percentage). Also reaching double-digit digs were Shearn with 15 and Kluger with 13, while Patrick again finished the match with six blocks.

Vujosevic paced all players in the match with 21 kills while adding a .396 attack percentage. Additionally, Maja Jankovic snared 22 digs for Maryland Eastern Shore and Mere Serea posted seven blocks.

"It is hard to stop giving credit to Maryland Eastern Shore for the way they played tonight," said Bock. "They played so hard out there and did so after playing a lengthy match with a disappointing result for them earlier in the day. They just kept finding another gear to go to tonight. They are vastly improved from when we saw them a year ago (the Mids defeated the Hawks in three sets in 2016). Their future, both immediate and long term, is a really bright one."

Vujosevic and Babic were named to the all-tournament team, as were Kelsey Roush from Saint Francis U. and Taylor Sharrits from Akron.

Navy will be back in Alumni Hall Wednesday at 4 p.m. for a match against Air Force.