Week #1 • Aug. 30-Sept. 1 • Wake Forest Invitational

Match Information (2023 records)
Navy (18-9 / 9-7 PL) vs. West Virginia (9-22 / 2-16 Big 12)
Friday, Aug. 30 • 3 p.m.
Reynolds Gymnasium • Winston-Salem, N.C.
Series Record - West Virginia leads, 5-0
Last Match - West Virginia, 3-0 (Sept. 4, 2021 / Annapolis, Md.)
Live Video - None

Navy (18-9 / 9-7 PL) vs. Hofstra (18-11 / 8-10 CAA)
Saturday, Aug. 31 • 3 p.m.
Reynolds Gymnasium • Winston-Salem, N.C.
Series Record - Tied, 1-1
Last Match - Navy, 3-2 (Sept. 13, 1996 / Hempstead, N.Y.)
Live Video - None

Navy (18-9 / 9-7 PL) at Wake Forest (17-12 / 8-12 ACC)
Sunday, Sept. 1 • 3 p.m.
Reynolds Gymnasium • Winston-Salem, N.C.
Series Record - Navy leads, 1-0
Last Match - Navy, 2-1 (Oct. 27, 1978 / College Park, Md.)
Live Video - ACCNX

The Weekend Advance
•    Navy opens its 2024 campaign this weekend when it travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., to take part in the Wake Forest Invitational.
•    The Mids will play one match Friday (West Virginia), Saturday (Hofstra) and Sunday (Wake Forest), with each of those matches starting at 3 p.m. in Reynolds Gymnasium.
•    Links to live statistics from each of Navy's matches and the ACCNX video stream of Sunday's weekend finale against the Demon Deacons can be found at NavySports.com.
•    This is Navy's first trip to Wake Forest, first visit to the state of North Carolina since 2017 and first match at the home of a team currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2015 (at Syracuse).

2023 Navy Recap
•    Navy compiled an 18-9 overall record last season and placed fifth in the Patriot League regular season with a 9-7 record.
•    The Mids won their Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal round match at No. 4 Bucknell, then lost to top-seeded and eventual-champion Colgate in the semifinal round.

Class of 2024
•    Navy lost all six starting players from last season through graduation and returns only libero Hannah Hoover from its initial seven players in the lineup.
•    Among the team's departing seniors from last year were four 2023 All-Patriot League performers in outside hitter Jordan Llewellyn (first team), middle blocker Anna Klemeyer (second team), outside hitter Jamie Llewellyn (second team) and setter Averi Miller (second team).
•    An additional loss was middle blocker Maggie Bodman, who had earned all-league accolades in each of her first three seasons.

Statistically Speaking
•    The Mids return six letter winners from last season: libero Hannah Hoover, defensive specialist Ally Alessio, outside hitter Paige Buzzerio, setter Arleigh Hanson, setter / opposite hitter Doris Nelson and middle blocker Ava Toppin.
•    Navy enters the 2024 season without a player who has totaled 10 or more kills in a single match.  The highest for  a current Mid in a match is eight by Ava Toppin.
•    Doris Nelson enters the year leading the 2024 roster with 82 career kills.
•    Navy ranks either eighth or ninth among Patriot League teams in returning statistics for sets played (429 / 8th), kills (110 / 9th), assists (206 / 8th), aces (70 / 8th), digs (662 / 8th) and blocks (47 / 9th) from the 2023 season.

2024 Patriot League Poll
•    Navy totaled 68 points to finish in fifth place in the 2024 Patriot League Preseason Poll.

2024 Patriot League Preseason Poll
1. Colgate, 128 points (16 first-place votes)
2. American, 108 (2)
3. Bucknell, 95
4. Army West Point, 86
5. Navy, 68
T6. Lehigh 57
T6. Loyola Maryland 57
8. Lafayette, 33
9. Holy Cross, 16

5-Set Matches
•    Navy played 15 five-set matches over the course of the 2022 (8) and 2023 (7) seasons.
•    That total ranks fourth for the most five-set matches played by a Navy team in a two-year span (18, 1994-95; 16, 1993-94 and 1995-96),
•    Only one of those five-set matches was played against a non-league opponent (2022, Old Dominion).
•    For an additional comparison, the Mids played 18 five-set matches in the previous four seasons (2018-21).

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.

West Virginia Preview
•     West Virginia posted an overall record of 9-22 last season and placed 13th in the 13-team Big 12 Conference with a 2-16 record.
•     The Mountaineers finished in 14th place in this season's 15-team Big 12 Conference Preseason Poll.
•    West Virginia holds a 5-0 advantage in the all-time series with Navy, which includes a 4-0 record during Navy's Division I era (1991-present).
•    The teams last met in 2021 when the Mountaineers defeated the Mids in three sets in Annapolis.
•    Navy has posted a 1-8 record against teams which currently comprise the Big 12 Conference.  This includes a 1-7 record when the Mids have been a Division I program.
•    The Mids lost to UCF last season in what was the inaugural Big 12 campaign for the Knights.

Hofstra Preview
•     Hofstra put together an overall record of 18-11 last season and finished in a tie for eighth place in the 12-team Coastal Athletic Association with an 8-10 record.
•     Hofstra placed seventh in the 2024 CAA Preseason Poll.
•    The teams have split the two prior meetings, with the Pride winning, 2-1, in 1980 (played at Temple) and the Mids winning in five sets on the road in 1996.
•    Navy has posted a 50-60 overall record against current teams in the CAA and a 21-38 mark against the membership during the program's Division I era (1991-present).
•    The Mids last played a CAA team in 2021 when they lost in five sets to Towson in Annapolis.

Wake Forest Preview
•     Wake Forest tallied a 17-12 overall record in 2023 and finished the 15-team Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with an 8-10 record, which placed the Demon Deacons in a tie for eighth place.
•     Wake Forest finished in 11th place in the 18-team 2024 ACC Preseason Poll.
•    The lone prior match between the teams occurred in 1978 when Wake Forest posted a 2-1 victory over the Mids in a match played on the Maryland campus in College Park, Md.  That was Navy's second season as a varsity program and occurred when the Mids were playing on the AIAW Division II level
•    Navy has posted a 6-17 record against current teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  That overall mark includes a 2-8 record since Navy became a Division I program in 1991.
•    Navy's two D1 era wins have come in the last two seasons when it defeated Notre Dame in 2022 (at Norfolk, Va.) and Syracuse in 2023 (at Albany, N.Y.).
•    The Mids have compiled a 0-4 record when playing a road match at the home of a team currently in the ACC.  Those losses came at Pittsburgh in 1983, North Carolina State in 1996, Virginia in 2014 and Syracuse in 2015.
•    The lone additional opponent from the Patriot League Wake Forest has faced is Colgate.  The Demon Deacons won a pair of neutral site matches against the Raiders in 1982 and '86.

Navy vs. Wake Forest
•     Navy vs. Wake Forest games across all sports are somewhat rare.  This will be the first sporting event between the schools since the men's tennis teams met in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Navy in North Carolina Tournaments
•     This is the ninth time in which Navy is playing in a tournament in the state of North Carolina and the first since 2017 when it played at an event hosted by Elon, High Point and UNCG.

Navy vs. North Carolina Teams
•     Wake Forest is one of 10 teams from the state of North Carolina Navy has faced.
•    The Mids have compiled an overall record of 12-19 against North Carolina schools and a 9-14 mark during Navy's Division I era (since 1991).
•     Navy has compiled an overall record of 3-6 in road matches against North Carolina teams.  This includes a 3-5 record during Navy's Division I era.

Up Next
•     Navy will open the home portion of its 2024 campaign by playing host to the Kristen Dickmann Invitational Sept. 5-8 in the Wesley A. Brown Field House.
•    The Mids will face Liberty (Sept. 5), UC San Diego (Sept. 6) and Cornell (Sept. 7) next week, with the three visiting teams playing a round robin Sept. 6-8.
•    This is the 13th season in which Navy's annual fall tournament has been played in tribute to Kristen Dickmann.
•    Kristen was a member of the Navy volleyball team in her freshman fall of 2007.  She unexpectedly passed away in Bancroft Hall in May 2008, three weeks after turning 19.