WASHINGTON, D.C. – Middle blockers Sarena Seelbach (Jr., Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Katie Patrick (Sr., Aurora, Colo.) combined for 22 kills and 10 blocks in a four-set victory by the Navy volleyball team over Loyola Saturday evening at Bender Arena in Washington, D.C., in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament.  The No. 2-seeded Mids (22-8) defeated the third-seeded Greyhounds, 18-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-23. 
 
The victory sends Navy into Sunday's championship match where it will face top-seeded American at 2 p.m.  The winner of the match between the teams that shared the 2018 league regular season crown will advance to the NCAA Tournament.
 
These same two teams also met last season in the final.  The Eagles won in three sets that day to win the tournament title for the 15^th time in 17 seasons and deny the Mids their first tournament championship.
 
Loyola, playing in the Patriot League Tournament for the first time since joining the league in 2013, definitely was the aggressor at the start of the match.  The Greyhounds quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead and never looked back in winning set one.  Loyola held leads of 11-5, 17-8 and 24-14 before a late 4-0 by the Mids winnowed the margin slightly.
 
Navy actually had more kills than Loyola did in the first set, 11-10, but the Mids also had 11 attack errors to hit .000 and the Greyhounds had just five errors to hit .156.
 
"Credit Loyola for coming out of the gate strong and playing excellent volleyball," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador.  "I'm proud of the way we gathered ourselves at the end of the first set and strung some momentum together to carry into set two."
 
Navy scored only five points on its serve during the entire opening set, with three of those points coming as part of that late 4-0 run.  With team captain Darby Minton (Sr., Chino Hills, Calif.) dropping back to serve to start set two, the Mids matched that production by taking a 5-0 lead to begin the frame.  The lead would grow to 9-1 before the Greyhounds started to chip away at it.  Loyola was able to close to within four points at 10-6 and then made it a three-point gap at 12-9. 
 
The teams were again separated by just three points at 17-14 when a 5-0 Navy run boosted the Mids out to a 22-14 lead.
 
Navy played a much cleaner second set as it posted 18 kills against just five attack errors (.302) and limited Loyola to a .143 hitting percentage (11-5-42).
 
The teams pretty much played sideout volleyball over the first 18 points of set three.  The Mids were in front 9-8 when a 3-0 run gave them a 12-8 cushion.  Loyola quickly sliced that margin in half at 13-11, but Navy registered each of the next three and five of the next six points to open up an 18-12 advantage.  The Mids would tally seven of the remaining 12 points in the set to take a 2-1 lead.
 
Navy had its best hitting performance of the night in winning the third set as it hit .419 (15-2-31) and kept Loyola right about at its average for the first two sets (.158).  Helping the Mids to that effort was the hitting prowess of outside hitter Maddi Sgattoni (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Patrick.  The 2018 All-Patriot League honorees combined for 10 kills and no attack errors on 17 attempts in the set.  Patrick's last swing came off of a Loyola overpass which she violently sent to the floor in the middle of several diving Greyhounds to close out the frame.
 
Set four was the closest of the entire night.  The score had been tied just five times combined in the first three sets, but it would be knotted 15 times in the fourth frame.
 
Navy made the first move of the set as it went on a 3-0 and 5-1 run to take a 10-8 lead.  Loyola answered soon thereafter with a 5-0 spurt to jump in front, 16-12.  Back came the Mids and the score was tied again at 16-16.  Loyola would score the next two points only to see Navy notch the ensuing two to tie the score at 18-18.
 
Navy eventually led at 20-19 and 21-20, but Loyola would score the next two points to take a 22-21 advantage.  Back-to-back sideouts gave Loyola a 23-22 lead and the serve.  A Loyola attack error tied the score at 23-23, then Patrick delivered again with a kill to take the Mids to match point with a 24-23 lead.  The ball crossed the next several times during the course of the ensuing point before Loyola's Ann Ernst hit the ball high and past the Navy endline to send the Mids back to the championship match.
 
After its slow start to the match, Navy outhit Loyola .291-.132 over the last three sets.  The Mids accrued 46 kills and 14 attack errors in the last three-quarters of the match and held the Greyhounds to 35 kills and 19 hitting errors.
 
"We started to hit our stride defensively as the match went on," said Labrador, "which really fueled our offensive numbers."
 
Navy would total a .208-.136 hitting advantage for the entire 111-minute match.
 
Defensively, Navy held a 75-64 lead in digs and Loyola held a 13-10 edge in blocks.
 
Setter Patricia Mattingly (Sr., New Albany, Ind.) did a great job of spreading the ball around as four Mids ended the match with at least 10 kills.  Sgattoni led the way with 13, Patrick added 12 to go along with a .579 attack percentage, Seelbach knocked down 10 kills as did Avery Stowell (Fr., Yorba Linda, Calif.), who only played the last three sets.  Mattingly, the now three-time Patriot League Setter of the Year and three-time league scholar-athlete of the year, recorded 48 assists.
 
Sydney Shearn (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) paced the Navy defense with 21 digs.  She was joined by 14 digs from Minton, 13 digs from Sgattoni and nine from Mattingly.  Additionally, Seelbach had six blocks, Sgattoni had five blocks and Patrick tallied four blocks.
 
American defeated Navy twice during the 2018 season, winning in five sets on its home floor and in three sets in Annapolis.  The Eagles had to rally to defeat fourth-seeded Colgate in five sets in Saturday's first semifinal round match.  The Raiders held a 2-1 lead in sets before American won the final two frames to return to the final.