ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy volleyball team will close a busy stretch of three matches in five days Tuesday when the Mids (8-8, 3-2 Patriot League) play host to Bucknell (13-5, 2-4) at 7 p.m. in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.
Navy Recap
Navy went back on the road this weekend making local trips to Loyola on Friday and American on Saturday.
Navy defeated Loyola in four sets, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20, 26-24, in a match that lasted over two hours.
Amanda Montag (Jr., Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) notched a double-double of 16 kills and 10 digs to go along with three blocks and two aces.
Maddi Sgattoni (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) just missed a double-double as she tallied 15 digs and none kills. Also,
Avery Stowell (So., Yorba Linda, Calif.) added 13 kills,
Paige Miles (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) tallied 45 assists, nine digs and five kills and
Natalie LaPlaca (Sr., Owings, Md.) snared 13 digs.
The next afternoon, Navy lost a five-set match to American, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-8. The Eagles, who did not play Friday night, won the match lasting over two hours and 30 minutes. Sgattoni registered a season high for kills with 21 and tied a season best for digs with 16. Defensively,
Emily Solis (Sr., Leesburg, Va.) grabbed a career-high tying 27 digs.
"We spent a lot of time on the court in a 24-hour period from Friday evening to Saturday late afternoon," said Navy head coach
Paco Labrador. "Despite that, we kept battling on every point. Being able to do just that is why we played such a challenging pre-league schedule.
"What we do need to improve upon is having more consistent execution throughout sets and widening the balance of our offense and defense to include more people. Runs of even three or four points can change the entire course of a set. We were on both ends of those small runs last weekend. The teams that are able to put those together on offense and stop them on defense do so with a lot of people involved and are the more successful teams."
Bucknell Preview
Bucknell stopped a three-match skid with a five-set win over Holy Cross on Saturday. The team's additional league win was a four-set victory over Lafayette, and it has lost league matches to Lehigh (3-1), Loyola (3-2), American (3-0) and Army (3-1).
Bucknell's 13 wins on the year already surpasses its 2018 total of eight, and the Bison need one more win to match the most wins in a season they have recorded over the last 13 years.
Navy defeated Bucknell twice during the 2018 season, winning in four sets in Lewisburg (25-19, 23-25, 25-20, 25-14) and in three sets in Annapolis (31-29, 25-14, 25-14).
"Bucknell's overall record is more indicative of how much the team has improved this year than its league record shows," said Labrador. "They easily could be above .500 in league play as they have played the top teams in the league really tough. As our matches against them last year showed, we need to be prepared for another match with lots of swings and long points. They played one less match than we did this weekend, so we have to be ready for an energized team from the opening serve."
