ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy volleyball team will begin Patriot League play this weekend when the Mids (8-5) take to the road for matches Friday at 7 p.m. at Bucknell (5-6) and Saturday at 4 p.m. at Lehigh (11-1).
 
NavySports.com will have links to both live statistics and free live video through the Patriot League Network of both matches.

Friday, Sept. 21 – 7 p.m. – Navy at Bucknell – Live Statistics – Live Video
Saturday, Sept. 22 – 4 p.m. – Navy at Lehigh – Live Statistics – Live Video

Big Rally at Air Force
Navy closed its non-league slate with a five-set victory at Air Force on Saturday.  The Mids dropped sets one and two by the identical score of 25-21, but won the remaining three sets, 25-19, 25-22 and 15-7.
    
It was the first time Navy had rallied from a 0-2 deficit to win a match since doing so on back-to-back days Sept. 28 (Lehigh) and 29 (Lafayette), 2012, and the first time the Mids accomplished the feat away from Annapolis since Nov. 8, 2005 (at Delaware State).

Non-League Slate
Navy's non-league schedule was a challenging one.  The Mids opened the year by competing in a tournament at Penn State with the final match of the weekend being a match against the then No. 6 Nittany Lions.  Penn State is currently 9-2 on the year and ranked fourth nationally.  Week two saw Navy face an Alabama team that is now 12-2 on the year and a Villanova squad that is 8-5 on the season with a win over No. 21 Utah.  One of Navy's best wins of the early season was a five-set victory over Tulane.  The Green Wave have compiled a 12-3 record on the season.  The Mids closed the non-league slate with a loss to a Denver team that is 11-1 and favored to win the Summit League for the fifth year in a row, and a win over an Air Force team that has defeated Maryland.
    
"Our non-league season was exactly what this team needed to prepare us for Patriot League play," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador.  "The mix of top-50 ranked teams like Penn State and Alabama along with top-100 ranked teams like Denver and Tulane allowed us to see the size and speed that the top teams in the Patriot League will offer.  Playing in front of big opponent crowds like Penn State and Air Force has helped us know that we can keep our poise and focus even with 1,000+ fans supporting our opponent.  

"The three-match weekend format forced us to go to our bench and I'm happy with the depth and skill of our subs.  Several players have quality game-time reps to draw from.  Katie Patrick (Sr., Aurora, Colo.) has picked-up where she left-off last season, providing leadership, a powerful offensive threat and a considerable blocking presence.  Maddi Sgattoni (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) has, somewhat quietly, produced some exceptional stat lines.  She's doing it all for us from all area of the court, behind the endline with her serve, in the back-court with her ball control and in the front row with her attacking."

A Second Patriot League Player of the Week
A pair of Mids have now been recognized as the Patriot League Player of the Week this season.  After Sgattoni earned the accolade on Sept. 10 Patrick followed with the award on Sept. 17.
    
Patrick averaged 2.42 kills and 1.17 blocks per set and hit .400 in matches against UMES, Denver and Air Force.  She began the weekend with 11 kills and a .562 attack percentage in four sets against UMES, had five kills and seven blocks in three sets against Denver and added 13 kills, five blocks and a .414 hitting performance in five sets against Air Force.

Navy in the Statistical Rankings
Patrick leads the Patriot League and ranks 26th nationally with a .404 hitting percentage.  Patrick also stands seventh in the league with an average of 1.06 blocks per set.  Fellow middle hitter Sarena Seelbach (Jr., Chapel Hill, N.C.) ranks 10th in the league with both her hitting mark of .264 and her 0.94 blocks-per-set average.
    
Sgattoni ranks third in the league with both 17 aces (77th nationally) and a 0.35 aces-per-set average and is sixth in the league with an average of 3.08 kills per set.
    
Patricia Mattingly (Sr., New Albany, Ind.) ranks fourth in the league with an average of 7.87 digs per set and Sydney Shearn (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) ranks sixth with her average of 3.94 digs per set.
    
Navy as a team ranks second in the league and 92nd nationally with 66 aces and stands third in the league in aces per set (1.38 saps).  The Mids also rank fourth in the league in kills (12.21 kps), hitting percentage (.204) and opponent hitting percentage (.183).

Navy vs. Bucknell
Bucknell compiled a 5-6 record in non-league matches this fall.  Several of the wins for the Bison came over Delaware State, NJIT and Niagara, with a losses to Cal State Fullerton, Akron and Brown included on the other side of the team's ledger.
    
Bucknell ranks third in the league in both offensive (.208) and defensive (.175) hitting percentage and is third in digs (15.21 dps) and blocks (2.38 bps).  Also, Mimi Richards is pacing the league in blocks (1.36 bps) and Brooke Stark stands fourth in digs (4.00 dps).
    
The Bison were selected to place sixth in the Patriot League this season.  Bucknell ended the 2017 season in sixth place with a league record of 8-8 and an overall record of 14-14.
   
Navy won both meetings with Bucknell a year ago, with the Mids winning in three sets (25-8, 25-15, 25-19) in Annapolis and in four sets (25-17, 15-25, 25-22, 25-21) in Lewisburg.
    
Seven of the last 16 matches between the teams have been extended to five sets.  This includes four-straight matches during the 2015 and '16 seasons.

"Bucknell has played tough against some very good teams," said Labrador.  "They play a smart brand of volleyball and we will have to be at the top of game and expect them to have a well executed game plan.  They have exceptional balance in their offense which makes them a tough team to block.  We will need our servers to make Bucknell predictable."

Navy vs. Lehigh
Lehigh enters a Friday match against Loyola with an 11-1 record this season.  The Mountain Hawks have posted wins over Rutgers (five sets), UMES (four sets) and George Mason (four sets).  In comparison, Navy lost to Rutgers in four sets, defeated UMES in four sets and beat George Mason in three sets.  Lehigh's lone loss of the season was a four-set defeat to Radford.
    
Lehigh leads the Patriot League in seven of the 10 statistical categories, including hitting percentage (.243), kills (13.33 kps), blocks (2.55 bps), opponent hitting percentage (.133) and opponent kills (10.74 kps).
   
Individually, Sabrina Lancaster leads the league in kills (3.82 kps), Emily Poole (.383) and Lauren Bright (.377) rank third and fourth in the league, respectively, in hitting percentage, and Alina Lam stands second in aces (0.43 saps).
    
Lehigh totaled a pair of first-place votes in the Patriot League Pre-Season Poll and was predicted to place second in the standings, one position ahead of Navy. This is after the Mountain Hawks finished in a tie for fourth place in the league last season (18-13, 9-7) and lost in the semifinal round of the league tournament.
    
Navy and Lehigh have split the two regular season meetings between the teams in each of the last three seasons.  The home team won both matches a year ago as the Mids won in four sets (25-19, 23-25, 25-14, 25-18) in Annapolis and the Mountain Hawks won in Bethlehem in five sets (28-26, 21-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-10).  Those results were the exact opposite of what transpired in 2016 as Navy won in five sets in Bethlehem and Lehigh won in four sets in Annapolis.

"Lehigh is playing at very high level," said Labrador.  "They are heading into the weekend with 11 wins including a huge win over Rutgers.  This match will be a great barometer for where each program stands in their development and where each program needs to go, to compete for a Patriot League title."