HAMILTON, N.Y. –– Patriot League regular season champion Colgate (16-8, 13-2) fended off a challenge by the Navy (12-12, 8-7) volleyball team, Saturday at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y.  The Raiders, who lost to the Mids in three sets earlier this year, won a four-set decision (25-15, 27-29, 25-11, 25-20) this afternoon.

"It was tough to really get going today," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador, whose team defeated Army in four sets Friday night.  "Credit Colgate.  I thought they served a nice match.  I thought we did some nice things when we controlled the ball."

The Raiders used a 5-0 run to take a 13-9 lead midway through the first set.  The Mids sliced the deficit in half at 16-14, but then saw Colgate score the next seven points.

The second set featured 16 ties and eight lead changes.  Colgate was the first team to hold a set point at 24-23, but that was fought off by a kill from Jamie Llewellyn (So., Port Deposit, Md.).  The Raiders also had set points at 25-24 and 26-25.  Navy then tallied back-to-back points to reach its first set point at 27-26.  A kill by the Raiders extended the frame, but consecutive kills by Cami Herman (Sr., Brookfield, Wis.) and Avery Stowell (Sr., Yorba Linda, Calif.) gave the Mids the second set.

Colgate jumped out to 7-0 lead to quickly take control of set number three.

The Raiders held leads of 13-11 and 18-15 in the fourth set before they opened up a 22-16 advantage.

Colgate's offense registered 53 kills, a .298 attack percentage and dropped in 10 service aces to better the 44 kills, .163 hitting effort and three aces recorded by Navy.  Helping the Raiders was their holding a 15-6 advantage in blocks.

Stowell's 12 kills led the Navy offense, with Herman close behind with 10 kills.  Just missing double figures in kills was Maggie Bodman (So., Northbrook, Ill.) who finished with nine kills and one error on 15 attempts (.533).  Defensively, Kimberly Lynch (Sr., Murrietta, Calif.) grabbed a team-high 12 digs and Anna Klemeyer (So., Sarasota, Fla.) led the Mids with four blocks.

"Maggie did a great job of hitting a variety of angles with great power," said Labrador.  

"We are looking forward to a good week of preparing this week for a tough Lafayette team."

Navy closes the regular season one week from tonight when it plays at Lafayette.