ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Ava Toppin and Caroline Buffum each tallied 11 kills to spark the Navy volleyball team to a four-set victory over Lehigh, Saturday night at the Wesley A. Brown Field House in Annapolis.  The Mids (10-10, 6-5) defeated the Mountain Hawks (9-11, 3-8), 25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 25-15, to give themselves five wins in their last six matches.

Lehigh had defeated Navy in four sets earlier this season.  Also, tonight's match came one day after the Mids won a five-set match against Lafayette and Lehigh lost a five-set match at American.

"We had to dig deep after a really long match Friday (two and a half hours)," said Navy head coach Paco Labrador.  "I'm proud of our ability to stay dialed into our game plan."

Set One
Lehigh raced out to an early 9-4 lead and soon stretched the advantage to 12-6 and then 19-12.   Navy chipped away at the deficit and a kill by Buffum drew it to within 21-18.  Toppin and Grace Burgoyne combined for blocks on each of the next two points, then an ace from Lainey Feighery tied the score at 21-21.  The tandem of Toppin and Burgoyne again tallied a block, then another ace by Feighery stretched the lead to 23-21.  Toppin followed with a kill to take Navy to set point, with a kill by Burgoyne capping the 8-0 run that closed the set.

The Mids posted a .214 hitting percentage in the first set and held the Mountain Hawks to a .000 percentage thanks to four Navy blocks.

Set Two
Navy put together a strong start to the set as it took an 8-3 lead, with the advantage growing to as many as eight points at 13-5, 15-7 and 17-9.  The lead eventually was 21-15 when Lehigh closed to within four points at 22-18 and 23-19.  A kill from Farrah Eike gave Navy a 24-19 lead, then a Lehigh service error finished play in the set.

Set Three
Lehigh took a 7-2 lead in the early part of the set before Navy winnowed the deficit down to two points at 11-9.  The Mountain Hawks regained control of the stanza and soon built an 18-11 lead, which was too much for the Mids to overcome.

Set Four
Navy used a 3-0 run to take an 11-7 lead.  The margin hovered between three and four points until the Mids went on a 4-0 run to take an 18-10 advantage.  From there, the lead never dipped below six points over the remainder of the set.

Statistical Summary
Navy held offensive leads of 51-42 in kills and .220-.176 in hitting percentage.  Defensively, the Mids led 51-39 in digs but Lehigh held a 13-7 advantage in blocks.  The service line proved to be another factor in the match.  Navy bettered Lehigh's ace total by only one, 6-5, but the Mids committed just 10 service errors to the 16 committed by the Mountain Hawks.

"Our defense has been steadily improving all season," said Labrador, "and we took a big step forward tonight.  Lehigh has very physical attackers and I thought we found a way to slow them down enough to find success."

Toppin finished with 11 kills, a .409 hitting percentage and three blocks, while Buffum totaled 11 kills and a .333 hitting percentage.

"Ava is leading this team on and off the floor, and it is a huge reason we have found success," said Labrador.  "Caroline had a really nice bounce back match tonight.  We are asking her to play a couple of positions and she's working hard to be an impact player on both sides of the court."

Navy had great balance in its attack from setters Isa Boyd (21 assists) and Feighery (20 assists) as Eike posted nine kills and Aunhea Hauanio-Lore knocked down eight kills.  Hauanio-Lore added 10 digs to finished just behind the team-leading 13 snared by Amara Chambers.  Also, Burgoyne recorded three blocks and Madeline Bildeaux was credited with four blocks.

Up Next
Navy returns to the road next weekend for matches Oct. 31 at Holy Cross and Nov. 1 at Army.