UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –– The Navy volleyball team opened its 2018 season by posting a 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-19) victory over UMBC Friday evening at Recreation Hall on the Penn State campus in University Park, Pa.  It was the second year in a row in which the Mids began their season with a 3-0 win and it is the third-straight season in which they won their opening match of the year.
 
"The team started the match extremely dialed in," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador, who became the first head coach of the Mids to win the opening match of their career in a 3-0 sweep.  "The first weekend is tough because there's not much scouting or preparation you can do, so I'm very proud of how focused we were on our side of the net and played Navy volleyball."
 
Navy quickly took control of the opening set, scoring the first three points of the match and jumping out to a 6-1 lead.  The advantage would reach double figures for the first time at 13-3 and the cushion never fell below eight points.  The Mids hit .367 in the first set and limited the Retrievers to a (-).029 hitting mark.
 
UMBC took a slim 4-3 lead at the start of the second set only to see Navy run off the ensuing nine points to build a 12-4 lead.  The closest the gap winnowed to was five points at 18-13, after which the Mids tallied five-straight points to firmly take a 23-13 lead.
 
Navy's hitting cooled off slightly in the second set, but the team's .212 mark still bettered the (-).049 recorded by UMBC.
 
The Mids tried to separate themselves early in the third set as they took a 10-6 lead, but the Retrievers tied the score at 12-12.   The teams traded points on sideouts through the Mids taking a 17-16 lead, then a second-straight UMBC attack error broke the ice for Navy and gave it an 18-16 lead.  The Navy run would increase to six in a row, which gave it a 22-16 advantage and provided enough of a cushion for the Mids to close out the 73-minute match.
 
Navy ended the night holding a .312-.009 advantage in hitting despite recording just eight more kills than UMBC did (39-31).  The Mids held an 8-3 edge in blocks and committed just 10 attack errors to 30 for the Retrievers.  Navy also snared 43 digs to 34 by UMBC.
 
"Our serve receivers have been working very hard all preseason to prepare for handling the ball control aspect of the game," said Labrador.  "The back row really played well tonight, and when you have a setter like Patricia Mattingly (Sr., New Albany, Ind.) distributing the offense, hitters can thrive."
 
Pacing the Navy attackers was Maddi Sgattoni (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) with 15 kills.  That total left her one kill shy of tying her career high which was set last season in a five-set match.  She also added seven digs, which were the most recorded by any Navy hitter.
 
Mattingly tallied the 37^th double-double of her career with 28 assists and 10 digs.  She shared the dig lead for the Mids with libero Sydney Shearn (Sr., Louisville, Ky.), who with a career-high tying nine assists to go along with her 10 digs fell one helper shy of posting the first double-double of her career.  Shearn has now grabbed 10 or more digs in 69 career matches, pulling her even closer to the school record of 77.
 
Additionally for the Mids, Kelsey Kingsland (Sr., Blackwell, Mo.), who missed the entire 2017 season with an injury, tied a career high with eight kills and set a career high with a .389 attack percentage.
 
Navy will remain in Happy Valley overnight for matches Saturday against Eastern Kentucky (1 p.m.) and the sixth-ranked tournament-host Nittany Lions (7 p.m.).