ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy volleyball team will close its regular season Saturday when the Mids (12-12, 8-7 Patriot League) play at Lafayette (14-9, 11-4) in a 5 p.m. match in Easton, Pa.
A video stream of the match will be available through ESPN+. A link to those streams and to live statistics from the matches will be available on NavySports.com.
Playoff Possibilities
Navy will be either the No. 5 or the No. 6 seed in the Patriot League Tournament and play a quarterfinal round game on the road Tuesday night.
The Mids enter the weekend one win ahead of Loyola for fifth place. However, the Greyhounds have two matches left (home vs. Buckell Friday, home vs. Colgate Saturday) and Navy has just one. Loyola holds the tiebreaker over Navy, which means the Mids need to finish ahead of the Greyhounds to earn the No. 5 seed. Navy will be the No. 5 seed if:
** Navy beats Lafayette AND Loyola loses to either Bucknell or Colgate
** Navy loses to Lafayette AND Loyola losses to both Bucknell and Colgate
About Navy
Navy split two road matches last weekend, winning in four sets at Army and losing in four sets at Colgate.
The Mids defeated the Black Knights, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 25-14. The win was the first for Navy over Army at West Point since 2014.
Navy registered just four more kills than Army, 54-50, but the Black Knights committed 29 attack errors to just 16 for the Mids.
Avery Stowell (Sr., Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted 17 kills and just one error on 47 swings (.340),
Jamie Llewellyn knocked down 13 kills and
Maggie Bodman (So., Northbrook, Ill.) tallied 10 kills and one error on 23 attempts (.391).
Averi Miller (So., Phoenix, Ariz.)dished out 38 assists and grabbed 14 digs. Additionally,
Kimberly Lynch (Sr., Murrietta, Calif.) snared 19 digs.
The next day, the Raiders posted a 25-15, 27-29, 25-11, 25-20 win over the Mids. Colgate outhit Navy, .298-.163, thanks to the Raiders tallying 15 blocks to just six for the Mids.
Stowell again led the Navy offense with 12 kills and Lynch paced the defense with 12 digs.
About Lafayette
Lafayette is tied with Army for second place in the Patriot League standings with an 11-4 record. The Black Knights hold the tiebreaker over the Leopards.
Lafayette also sits one win ahead of fourth-place American. The Leopards hold the tiebreaker over the Eagles should the teams end the year with the same record.
Army plays at American Saturday afternoon.
Lafayette has won back-to-back 3-0 matches over Lehigh and Bucknell. That follows a three-match stretch where the Leopards lost in three sets to Colgate, won a five-set decision over Loyola and lost in four sets to American.
Lafayette 3, Navy 1
Lafayette posted a 25-13, 25-23, 19-25, 25-22 win over Navy when the teams met Oct. 9 in Annapolis.
The Mids finished with more kills than the Leopards, 44-42, but Lafayette committed just 18 attack errors to 32 for Navy. That gave Lafayette a .255-.122 advantage in hitting percentage.
Jordan Llewellyn (So., Port Deposit, Md.) led the Navy attack with 12 kills and three aces, while both Stowell and Bodman had nine kills. Setter Miller finished with 39 assists and five blocks. Lynch grabbed a team-high 17 digs.
Leanna Deegan totaled 20 of Lafayette's 46 kills, Katie Weston had 16 digs and Gracie Gibson had seven blocks.
