Final Stats

HAMILTON, N.Y. â€"â€" An effective night hitting the ball led to the Navy volleyball team posting a three-set victory over Colgate Friday night at Cotterrell Court in Hamilton, N.Y. The Mids (13-3, 3-0 Patriot League) recorded their fourth win in a row with the 25-23, 27-25, 25-12 victory over the Raiders (9-6, 0-3).

Tonight's victory came just three days after the Mids posted their first victory over American since 1989, and marked the first time Navy had defeated Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y., since 2004. Additionally, it was just the third time Navy has posted a three-set sweep of Colgate since the Mids joined the Patriot League in 1991 (2002, 2004).

"This team is building a quiet confidence," said Navy head coach Larry Bock. "There was maybe a little bit of a hangover from our American win, but not much. What was really impressive tonight was how the team played when things got tight toward the end of sets one and two. You could see everyone just take a deep breath, stick their noses back into match and then go out to get the job done."

Each team put together a sizeable run during the early part of the opening stanza of play. The Raiders raced out to a 5-1 lead only to see the Mids score the next eight points to take a 9-5 advantage. The Navy lead would hover between two (11-9) and six points (16-10) before it took became a 20-14 lead. The lead would again be five points at 21-16 when Colgate ran off a 5-0 spurt of its own to tie the proceedings at 21-21.

Navy notched the ensuing two points on a kill by Sarena Seelbach (So., Chapel Hill, N.C.) and a block by the tandem of Seelbach and Maddi Sgattoni (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.). A Colgate kill sliced the lead down to 23-22, then a service error by the Raiders took the Mids to set point with a 24-22 lead. A Navy service error wiped out the first chance to win the set, but a kill from Katie Patrick (Jr., Aurora, Colo.) closed the frame for the Mids.

Navy has now won the first set in 14 of its 16 matches this season.

Just as they had done in set number one, the Raiders built a 5-1 lead at the beginning of set two. This time Navy tied the contest at 8-8 and soon took an 11-9 lead for the second consecutive set. The Mids held a precarious lead of 12-11 when a kill by Sgattoni started a 5-0 run for the visitors that boosted them to a 17-11 lead. Navy again held a five-point lead at 21-16 before taking a 23-19 advantage, but that cushion quickly evaporated down to one point at 23-22. Sgattoni tallied another kill to give the Mids a 24-22 lead and two chances to win the set. However, back-to-back kills by the Raiders made the score 24-24.

Setter Patricia Mattingly (Jr., New Albany, Ind.) again found Sgattoni for a kill to make the score 25-24, but a kill by Colgate's Jaelah Hutchison tied the score once more. Patrick and Tara Dotzauer (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) teamed up for a block to give the Mids their fourth opportunity to win the set, and this time they converted on an attack error by the Raiders.

Navy quickly took control of the third set as it jumped out to leads of 3-0, 5-1, 7-2 and 9-4, which was followed by a 5-0 run that gave the Mids a 14-4 advantage.

"It was just a very cleanly played set by us," said Bock of the Mids in set number three. "We didn't pass particularly well in the first two sets, and we had poor starts in those sets as well. But we put things together right out of the chutes in set three. We served really well in the third set, too."

Navy held hitting advantages over Colgate of .233-.062 in set one and .261-.146 in set two, but extended that margin out to .379-(-).024 in the final set. The Mids did not commit an attack error in the final set after posting four errors in each of the first two frames. Navy totaled just four more kills than the Raiders did on the night (38-34), but had 18 fewer attack errors (8-26). Navy also held an 11-3 edge in blocking. All of that led to the Mids holding an overall hitting percentage cushion of .286-.066 in the match.

"We came out blocking pretty well tonight," said Bock. "Then it was just a matter of slowing things down as the match went on. Pass, set, swing; we were finally able to find a rhythm."

Sgattoni led Navy with 10 kills, but Dotzauer and Maggie Phillips (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) each finished just one kill behind Sgattoni. Sydney Shearn (Jr., Louisville, Ky.) led Navy's passers with 14 digs, while Mattingly had another double-double of 24 assists and 12 digs and Phillips posted 11 digs of her own to go along with three blocks. Though Patrick finished with just two kills on five attempts, she notched seven blocks in the match.

"Our pin hitters did a really nice job tonight," said Bock. We were out of system a lot when Katie was in the front row, which limited her effectiveness as a hitter and forced the ball outside more. Maggie, Maddi and Tara delivered. Also, though perhaps unnoticed in the box score, both Sarena and Darby Minton (Jr., Chino Hills, Calif.) had really nice matches."

Navy will remain on the road for a 6 p.m. match Saturday at Holy Cross.

"This team has been really good all season long at putting a match behind them fairly quickly," said Bock. "We are definitely feeling pretty good about ourselves, but we always play close matches against Holy Cross (two of the last four matches have gone four sets and the other two have gone five sets) especially on the road. We will have to do that again and be better at the start of the match and in each set than we were this evening."