NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. –– Maddi Sgattoni (So., Pittsburgh, Pa.) notched a pair of double-doubles to help the Navy (6-3) volleyball team to a five-set win over Tulane (6-3) and a four-set victory over Howard (5-4) Friday at the College Avenue Gym on the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, N.J.  The Mids defeated the Green Wave, 25-20, 16-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-6, and the Bison, 25-14, 16-25, 25-20, 25-17.

Friday began with the Mids rallying from a 2-1 deficit in sets to defeat the Green Wave.

The score was tied nine times in the opening set, including at 18-18 after a kill by Olivia Rozmus (Jr., Chicago, Ill.).  Her effort started a 4-0 run for the Mids that gave them a 21-18 lead and led to a timeout being called by the Green Wave.  The teams exchanged the next three points (22-20), then a Tulane service error was followed by a block by the duo of Katie Patrick (Sr., Aurora, Colo.) and Patricia Mattingly (Sr., New Albany, Ind.) to take Navy to set point.  The Mids converted on their first chance to win the set when the Green Wave tallied an attack error.

Navy hit .293 and limited Tulane to a mark of .189 in the first set.  The Mids recorded 19 kills in the first set, but would total 19 over the next two sets to fall behind, 2-1.  The Green Wave built some separation midway through the second set, then Navy was within one point late in set three (18-17) before being outscored 7-2 down the stretch.

The fourth set also was a close one as the score was tied seven times and the largest lead for either team was three points until very late in the stanza.  Navy put together a quick start only to see Tulane slowly edge its way out to a 12-9 lead.  The Mids answered with a 3-0 run to tie the score.  The Green Wave soon held a 14-12 lead when Sgattoni knocked down a kill to slice the deficit in half.  A Tulane ball handling error tied the score at 14-14, then a Sgattoni ace gave Navy a 15-14 lead.  After a Tulane timeout, Sarena Seelbach (Jr., Chapel Hill, N.C.) notched a solo block to double the advantage for the Mids.  

The Navy lead hovered between one and three points until a kill by setter Paige Miles (Jr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) gave the Mids a 24-20 advantage.  Back-to-back service errors by players from both teams accounted for the final two points and sent the teams into a fifth set.

The Mids quickly jumped out to a 6-1 advantage in the set and never led their cushion dip below four points to win the match.

The Mids not only held an 8-4 advantage in kills in the fifth set, they also dropped in four aces in the abbreviated frame without committing a reception error.

"Roster depth was everything for us in this match," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador.  "The gym was hot and humid and I think that impacted us in the fourth and fifth sets.  We put some fresh legs into the match and it made a big difference down the stretch."

Outside hitters Sgattoni and Kelsey Kingsland (Sr., Blackwell, Mo.) paced the Navy offense throughout the match.  Sgattoni notched eight kills in the first set before posting, three, three, three and two kills, respectively, in the final four frames to post a career-best 19 kills.  She also hit .275 and added 15 digs in the match that lasted well over two hours.  Kingsland also set a career high for kills –– for the third time this season –– with 15.  She too tallied multiple kills in each of the five sets (4, 3, 2, 4, 2) and hit a very strong .364.

Joining the above duo with double figure kills was opposite hitter Rozmus with a career-high 11 kills.  Defensively, Shearn led all Navy players with 22 digs and Patrick accumulated four blocks.

Dishing the ball around for a team .238 attack percentage were setters Miles with 25 assists and Mattingly with 23 helpers (and 9 digs).

The team statistics were nearly identical across the box score.  Navy totaled 61 kills on 164 swings, a .238 attack percentage, 55 assists, five aces, 68 digs and 6.5 blocks.  On the other side of the net, Tulane amassed 62 kills on 164 swings, hit .232, and recorded 55 assists, four aces, 69 digs and 6.0 blocks.

"The final statistics show just how evenly matched the teams were today," said Labrador.

The Navy-Tulane match started at 1 p.m. and ended at nearly 3:30 p.m.  The Mids were back on the court at 7 p.m. for the start of their match against the Bison, 2017 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament champions, who had finished their first match of the day before the start of the Navy-Tulane contest.

Despite the short turnaround, Navy quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead in sets.  The Mids outhit the Bison, .312-.171 in winning the first frame.  Navy turned an early 7-6 lead into an 18-11 advantage in taking the opening set.

Howard's blocking started to get going in the second set as the Bison evened the match at one set each.  Navy held a 13-9 advantage in kills in the set, but Howard held a 7-3 edge in blocks.  The Mids led the Bison on the scoreboard, 14-12, but Howard tallied the next nine points to win the stanza.  

Navy never trailed in the third set, but never held a lead that seemed comfortable until late.  The Mids shook off the second set loss by taking early 3-0 and 10-4 leads, but the Bison closed to within one point at 13-12.  The score was 16-14 in favor of Navy when the Mids went on a run to build a 21-14 advantage that finally gave them some separation.

Navy again held a decent advantage in kills over Howard in the third set, 14-8, and this time the Mids also held a 3-1 edge in blocks over the Bison.

The fourth and what proved to be the final set of the night saw both offenses wear down a little bit.  Navy hit just .073 in the set, but that number was still better than Howard's mark of (-).057.  Scoring wise, the set was very similar to the third in that the Mids made their move about two-thirds of the way through the set.  Navy turned a 16-14 lead into a 22-15 advantage and then played close to sideout volleyball over the remainder of the nearly two-hour contest.

"Our seniors really stepped up at crunch time," said Labrador.  "The fourth set started to slip away from us and after a timeout all of the seniors rallied, dug deep and led us to pull away to win the set and the match."

Navy held slight leads over Howard in most statistics.  This included kills (47-38), hitting percentage (.150-.073), digs (75-69) and aces (8-2).  Howard led Navy in blocks by the count of 11-10.  

"Howard played inspired defense and really challenged us to find new and more aggressive ways to score," said Labrador.

It was another monster match for Sgattoni, who tallied another double-double of 11 kills and a career-high tying 17 digs and registered three service aces.  Patrick had a good match as well, recording 13 kills, a .478 attack percentage and four more blocks.  Her fellow middle blocker Seelbach also had a good offensive and defensive night with nine kills and six blocks.  And once again scooping up digs at a high rate was Shearn with 20.  Mattingly also dished out 36 assists to go along with six digs and three blocks.

Navy will close its trip to the Garden State with a 1:30 p.m. match Saturday against tournament-host Rutgers.  NavySports.com will have links to both free live stats and a video stream (pay) of the match.