Final Stats

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. â€"â€" A fast start thanks to its blocking keyed the Navy (7-1) volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over La Salle (7-2) Friday night at Tom Gola Arena in Philadelphia, Pa. The Mids defeated the Explorers 25-16, 25-14, 25-18 on the opening night of the Valley Forge Sports Invitational.

Navy head coach Larry Bock commented earlier in the week on the need for the Mids to have a better start to matches and each individual set. Navy jumped out to leads of 7-2 in set one and 7-0 in set two.

"We didn't have what I would call a particularly great warm-up," said Bock. "We arrived at the arena a little later than we wanted because of traffic. But once the match started, we came out of the blocks with our blocking game setting a great tone for us."

Navy totaled seven blocks in the first set without allowing La Salle to record a block of its own. Katie Patrick (Jr., Aurora, Colo.) alone accounted for one solo block and four block assists.

After the Mids had their strong start to the set, the Explorers were able to close to within three points at 8-5, but Navy placed seven of the next nine points of the set on the scoreboard to expand its lead out to 15-7.

Equally effective was Navy's hitting as the Mids totaled 12 kills and just one attack error on 27 swings for a hitting percentage of .407. Conversely, La Salle hit just .029 in the stanza on 10 kills and nine errors on 35 attempts.

"I think our block impacted La Salle's game plan," said Bock.

Navy's smallest lead in the second set was six points and that came at both 7-1 and 8-2. The Mids again hit over .400 â€"â€" .412 â€"â€" in the set while limiting the Explorers to a mark of .176.

The third set was comparatively close until late in the frame. The score was 15-15 â€"â€" the 11th tie of the set â€"â€" when Navy accounted for five-straight and seven of the next-eight points to build 22-16 cushion.

Navy continued its hitting prowess as it posted a mark of .414 in the final set to .069 for La Salle.

"What was most pleasing tonight was that we were able to keep our foot on the accelerator the entire time," said Bock. "We were pushed in the third set. It was sideout after sideout before we broke away.

"La Salle is a good team that just had a bad night, and we had a good night ourselves."

Navy totaled only five attack errors in the entire match to 21 for La Salle. That allowed the Mids to hit .411 in the match â€" the seventh-best percentage in program history â€"â€" to .092 for the Explorers. Aiding that gap was Navy finishing with 14 blocks and La Salle tallying just two.

Maggie Phillips (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) hit .722 in the match â€"â€" the eight-best mark in school history â€"â€" with 14 kills and one attack error on 18 swings. She also added seven digs and four blocks (three solo).

"Every part of Maggie's game was really 'on' tonight," said Bock.

Joining her in double figures for kills was Tara Dotzauer (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.) with 11 â€"â€" she had no attack errors on 22 attempts â€"â€" while Patrick had six blocks and Sarena Seelbach (So., Chapel Hill, N.C.) had five blocks. Additionally, Emily Solis (So., Leesburg, Va.) snared 12 digs.

Leading La Salle's offense was Devin Corah with 10 digs.

Navy will play a pair of matches Saturday, with both taking place at The Palestra in Philadelphia. The Mids will face Robert Morris at 11:30 a.m. and Penn at 4:30 p.m.