BETHLEHEM, Pa. –– Maddi Sgattoni (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied a career-high for kills for the second time in less than 24 hours and Sydney Shearn (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) grabbed 33 digs in a five-set victory by the Navy volleyball team over Lehigh Saturday afternoon at Leeman-Turner Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.  The Mids (10-5, 2-0 Patriot League) rallied from a 2-1 deficit in sets to defeat the Mountain Hawks (12-2, 1-1), 25-13, 22-25, 18-25, 25-14, 15-12.

"Lehigh had a great, well-executed game plan to contain our middle hitters," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador.  "We leaned on our pin hitters, and they really came through."

After winning the fourth set to send the match to set number five, Navy quickly jumped out to a 5-1 advantage at the start of the final frame.  That lead quickly dissipated as Lehigh took an 8-7 lead.  Navy scored the next three points to take a 10-8 lead, but that advantage also evaporated with back-to-back points being registered by Lehigh to tie the set at 10-10 and lead to a timeout by Labrador.  

The Mids regained the lead after the stoppage in action on a block by the tandem of Katie Patrick (Sr., Aurora, Colo.) and Kelsey Kingsland (Sr., Blackwell, Mo.), then pushed their advantage to 12-10 on an attack error by the Mountain Hawks.  A Lehigh timeout ensued, after which the Mountain Hawks sliced the margin in half on a kill by Emily Poole.  Sgattoni promptly tallied kills on the next two points to take the Mids to match point.  A Navy attack error kept the contest going, but a bad set by Lehigh's Poole closed out the match that lasted over two hours.

Sgattoni tallied five kills and Shearn snared nine digs in the abbreviated fifth set.

The last time Navy won a league road match that lasted five sets was two years ago when it also won at Lehigh.

"The Lehigh hitters were mixing their shots really well," said Labrador, "so our backcourt had to fly around tonight."

Navy went on a 7-0 run early in the opening set to build an early 10-4 lead.  Lehigh closed to within two points at 10-8 and 11-9 before a 4-0 run by the Mids gave them a 15-9 cushion.  The Navy lead would never dip below five points over the remainder of the set.  

Navy held a .355-.057 hitting percentage advantage in set one, but the Mids would struggle with their attack over the next two sets as they dropped both stanzas.

Each team held slim leads several times during the second set.  Navy held a 21-19 lead before Lehigh tied the set at 21-21, then the Mids took a 22-21 lead on a block from Patrick.  However, the Mountain Hawks would tally the ensuing four points to tie the match at one set each.  

The Mids held the Mountain Hawks to a .000 attack percentage in the second set, but Navy would hit (-).020 in the set itself.   Things didn't go much smoother for Navy in the third set as it hit .071 and allowed Lehigh to hit .189.  The third set was tied at 15-15 when Lehigh went on an 8-1 run to separate from Navy and take the 2-1 advantage.

Navy tallied four of the first five points of set four and slowly pulled away from Lehigh in the middle part of the set to send the teams into a fifth set for the second year in a row at Leeman-Turner Arena.  

Navy ended with match with just two more attempts than Lehigh (199-197), but the Mids had a 63-45 advantage in kills.  The Mids would outhit the Mountain Hawks, .161.076.  Navy also led Lehigh in digs (104-85) and blocks (15-10).

Sgattoni posted a career-high 21 kills on 62 swings during Friday's four-set victory by the Mids over Bucknell.  She would record 22 kills on 68 attempts this afternoon.  Sgattoni additionally registered a career-high 20 digs against the Mountain Hawks, which gave her the first 20-kill, 20-dig match by a Mid in 12 years and just the seventh such match since statistics became available starting with the 1991 season.

Sgattoni totaled eight kills and five attack errors on 28 attempts over the first two sets, but had five kills and one error in set three, four kills and one error in set four and five kills and one error in set five.  All told, she had 14 kill and three errors on 40 attempts in the last three frames for an impressive .275 hitting percentage over that span (.206 for the match).

"Maddi had another incredible night," said Labrador.  "She shouldered a huge load and scored some really tough points."

Shearn's dig total marked the sixth time she has grabbed at least 30 digs in a match in her career.  Besides Shearn, a Mid has totaled 30 or more digs just five other times in school history (since 1991).  Additionally, Shearn now need four digs to tie and five to break the Navy record for career digs.  The record stands at 1,424 and is held by Jessie Sims (2005-08).

Ranking second on the Navy team for kills was Kingsland with a career-high 17 (previous high was 15).  Kingsland totaled six kills in the second set and had five kills in set four.

Patrick neared a double-double with eight kills and a career-high 10 blocks, seven of which were solo blocks.  She has now totaled 333 career blocks, a total that moves her into second place in Navy history.  Patrick trails only the 358 blocks registered by Jen Williams (1996-99).

Joining Sgattoni with a double-double was Patricia Mattingly (Sr., New Albany, Ind.), who tallied 53 assists and 13 digs.

Other defensive standouts included Emily Solis (Jr., Leesburg, Va.) with 14 digs and Darby Minton (Sr., Chino Hills, Calif.) with 11 digs.

Navy will play host to Loyola Friday at 7 p.m. in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.  The Mids will then travel to Washington, D.C. to play American on Sunday, Sept. 30.