Match Information
Navy (4-16 / 4-7) at Bucknell (17-2 / 9-1)
Friday, Nov. 1 • 7 p.m.
Davis Gym • Lewisburg, Pa.
Last Match - Bucknell, 3-0 (Oct. 5, 2024 / Annapolis, Md.)
Live Video - ESPN+

Navy (4-16 / 4-7) at Lehigh (13-8 / 6-5)
Saturday, Nov. 2 • 4 p.m.
Leeman Turner Arena at Grace Hall • Bethlehem, Pa.
Last Match - Navy, 3-1 (Oct. 4, 2024 / Annapolis, Md.)
Live Video - ESPN+

The Weekend Advance
•    The Navy volleyball team heads back out on the road for a pair of matches this weekend in Pennsylvania. 
•    The Mids open the trip with a Friday night (7 p.m.) match at first-place Bucknell, then will play Saturday afternoon (4 p.m.) at Lehigh.
•    The Mountain Hawks will play host to Loyola Friday before taking on the Mids Saturday.
•    Links to live ESPN+ video and free live statistics from each match can be found at navysports.com.
Last Weekend
•    Navy played just one match last week as it posted a five-set victory over Lafayette in Annapolis.  The Mids defeated the Leopards, 25-21, 25-21, 23-25, 19-25, 15-9.

Last Weekend
•    The Mids closed November with a pair of losses in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.
•    Navy first lost a 3-0 decision (25-17, 25-11, 25-20) to Colgate then fell in three sets (26-24, 25-19, 25-19) to Army.

New Faces
•    Navy has used 17 different starting lineups, with 16 players starting at least one match.
•    The Mids have used 10 different starting lineups during the league season, with 16 different players starting at least one match.
•    Navy has had nine players make the first start of their respective careers this season.
•    Nine returning players have started more matches this season than they had in their careers entering 2024.
•    Navy had five players record the first kills of their respective careers during the Wake Forest Invite.
•    Among returning players, seven have already recorded more kills this season than they had in their careers prior to the start of this year.

5-Set Matches
•    Navy played 15 five-set matches over the course of the 2022 (8) and 2023 (7) seasons.
•    For an additional comparison, the Mids played 18 five-set matches in the previous four seasons (2018-21).
•    Navy has played four five-set matches in 2024 to bring its total to 19 over the last three years.

Close Sets
•    Navy has played 41 sets since the start of the Patriot League season.  Of those 41 sets, 12 have been determined by just two points and 21 have been decided by no more than five points.

Match No. 1,000
•    Navy's Oct. 19 match against Lafayette was the 1,000th for the Mids as a Division I team.
•    Navy played 594 varsity matches from the program's first varsity season in 1977 through 1990.
•    The Mids were elevated to the Division I ranks starting with the 1991 campaign.
•    Overall, Navy has played 1,596 matches heading into this weekend.

Patriot League Tournament Notes
•    The Mids are the only team to reach at least the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament in each of the last seven non-COVID shortened seasons.  
•     This span includes title match appearances in 2017, 2018 (champions) and 2022.

Bucknell Preview
•    Bucknell stands alone atop the Patriot League standings with a 9-1 record.  
•    The Bison opened the season with a four-set loss to Toledo, but since then have compiled a 17-1 record.  The lone blemish since that Toledo match was a four-set loss at Colgate on Oct. 13.
•    Bucknell posted a 3-0 (25-15, 25-9, 25-18) win over Navy on Oct. 5 in Annapolis.  
•    The Bison more than doubled Navy's kill total in the match, 45-20.
•    Farrah Eike led the Mids with six kills.  Tijana Kostic recorded 11 kills for the Bison.

Lehigh Preview
•     Lehigh will play host to Loyola Friday before facing the Mids on Saturday.
•    The Mountain Hawks have posted a 3-1 record over the last four matches.  Those wins came against Holy Cross twice and one win at Lafayette, with the loss being a 29-27, 25-21, 25-23 defeat to Bucknell.
•    Each of the last three and six of the last seven matches in the Navy-Lehigh series to be played in Bethlehem have gone five sets.  
•    In the last three matches to be played at Lehigh, eight of the 15 sets have been decided by no more than four points (2 points: 5 sets; 3 points: 2 sets, 4 points: 1 set).
•    Navy defeated Lehigh in four sets (22-25, 25-16, 25-23, 31-29) on Oct. 4 in Annapolis.
•    Farrah Eike recorded 20 kills for the Mids and Natalie Luscomb posted 15 kills for the Mountain Hawks.
•    Defensively, Navy's Hannah Hoover grabbed 21 digs and Lehigh's Kyleigh Brown finished with 18 digs.  Additionally, Ava Toppin and Grace Burgoune each had five blocks for the Mids while Emily Stewart had four for the Mountain Hawks.

Hoover Rises on Digs Lists
•    Hannah Hoover became the fifth Mid during the rally scoring era and seventh in school history (since 1995) to accrue 1,000 career digs.  She attained the 1,000 dig of her career late in the final set of Navy's Oct. 12 match at Lafayette.
•    The last Mids to reach 1,000 career digs was setter Patricia Mattingly (1,104) in 2018.
•    Hoover has moved into sixth place on Navy's career digs list and fifth place during the rally scoring era with her total of 1,034 digs.
•    Hoover had been Navy's starting libero in 65-straight matches until she was unable to play Sept. 28 at Colgate due to an injury that limited her to two sets at Army the night before.  The last time she was not Navy's libero was August 26, 2022, when the Mids played at Maryland.
•    Hoover snared 36 digs in Navy's five-set match at Loyola on Sept. 22.
•    Her total ranks second among Mids for the most digs in a match in Division I history (since 1991).
•    It also is currently tied for 19th place for the most by a player in a five-set match in the NCAA this season.
•    Hoover is tied for fourth place at Navy overall and stands alone in fourth place during the rally scoring era with 61 career matches with at least 10 digs.

Eike's Effort Among Best for Plebes
•    Farrah Eike recorded 20 kills in Navy's four-set victory over Lehigh on Oct. 4.
•    She became the first Navy freshman to have totaled at least 20 kills in a match during the 25-point rally scoring era (since 2008).
•    She is the first Navy freshman to have posted at least 20 kills in a match since Jessie Sims had 21 on Sept. 9, 2005, against Niagara (30-point rally scoring).
•    Eike also is the first Navy freshman to have at least 20 kills in a Patriot League match since Rachel Shropa had 21 against Army on Nov. 8, 1996 (sideout scoring).
•    Eike improved upon her own standard when she posted 27 kills in Navy's five-set win over Lafayette on Oct. 19.
•    She ended set one with a kill, set two with back-to-back kills and recorded kills on the last two points of set five.
•    The last time a Mid had at least 27 kills in a match was when Rachel Dougherty had 30 against UMBC on Nov. 6, 2007, and the last time there was at least a 27-kill effort by a Mid in a Patriot League match was when Dougherty had 29 against Holy Cross on Oct. 19, 2007.
•    The 27 kills ranks second among Navy freshmen to the 29 posted by Shropa in 1996.
•    Eike was named the Patriot League Player and Rookie of the Week after the Lafayette match.

Hanson's Double-Doubles
•    Setter Arleigh Hanson just missed recording another double-double when she dished out a career-best 46 assists and finished with nine digs in Navy's Oct. 19 match against Lafayette.
•    She has posted a double-double in seven matches this season, including a stretch of five in eight matches from Sept. 22-Oct. 12.

Up Next
•    Navy will be local for its penultimate weekend of the regular season.  The Mids will play host to Loyola on Thursday and play at American on Saturday.