WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Navy volleyball team took early leads in all three sets to earn a 3-0 victory over Holy Cross, Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass. The Mids (4-6, 2-0) defeated the Crusaders (6-8, 0-2), 25-16, 25-20, 25-16.
Navy never trailed in either the first or third sets and had five two-point deficits in the early going of set two until tying the score for the first and only time in the frame at 6-6.
The victory gives Navy a 2-0 record to start league play for the first time since the five-match 2021 spring season (when Navy played Loyola on back-to-back days) and in a full season for the first time since 2018 (when the Mids began the year with a 3-0 record).
"I thought the key to the match was how we started the first set," said Navy head coach
Paco Labrador. "We played steady and found lots of ways to score.
"Overall, this was a great team win. Our balance continues to be our strength and we are looking forward to being back home this coming week."
Set One
Navy held a slight lead for most of the first part of the set, then used a 4-0 run to take a 16-10 lead. Two of those points were recorded on blocks by the tandem of
Grace Burgoyne and
Avery Maddux. After a point for the Crusaders, the Mids ran off the next five points to build a 21-11 lead. Burgoyne and Maddux teamed for another block and Maddux added a kill as part of the run that opened up the set.
Set Two
The Mids took the lead for good when
Caroline Buffum recorded a kill to make the sore 7-6, but it was a precarious lead until toward the end of the frame. Navy took several four-point leads at 11-7 and 12-8, then led by five points at 14-9 only to see Holy Cross climb back into the set at 14-12. Once again there was a two-point margin between the teams at 17-15 when two kills by Buffum sandwiched around an attack error by the Crusaders pushed the lead back to five points at 20-15. The closest Holy Cross could get afterward was three points at 21-18 and 23-20 before the Mids finished the set.
Set Three
Saturday's match was played after the teams had the same type of match with opposite results on Friday. The Mids dropped the first two sets before winning the next three at Colgate while the Crusaders won the first two sets from 2026 favorite American before losing the ensuing three sets. That recent history was on the minds of both teams in the huddles before the start of the third set.
What proved to be the final frame followed a similar path as the second set in that the Mids took a slim lead in the early stages before finally being able to expand it in the middle stages. Navy took its first five-point lead at 10-5, Holy Cross winnowed the gap down to three points on several occasions before a 4-0 run that featured a trio of aces from
Isa Boyd made the score 19-12. From there, the Mids cruised down the stretch to close out play.
Statistical Summary
Navy finished with just three more kills than Holy Cross, 39-36, but held a .302-.188 advantage in hitting percentage. This was due to the Mids committing just 10 attack errors on their 96 attempts while the Crusaders were credited with 17 hitting errors on their 101 swings.
The service line also provided a big boost for Navy as it registered 8 aces and 4 errors to the 1 ace and 7 errors accrued by Holy Cross, thus giving the Mids 10 more points in serving than the Crusaders.
"We served a much better match tonight and it allowed us some better blocking structure and defense," said Labrador. "Our passers have been working really hard this week on some details and it showed today with some great passes against some tough Holy Cross servers."
Farrah Eike led Navy with 11 kills and finished one dig shy of recording a double-double for the second day in a row. Her 9 digs ranked second on the team to the 15 pulled in by
Amara Chambers. While Chambers and Eike patrolled the back row, Maddux and Burgoyne helped secure the net with the former tallying 9 blocks and the latter 5.
Additionally, Buffum recorded 7 kills and
Ellen Gundlach had 6, Chambers and Maddux each had 2 aces and three Mids finished with 2 blocks.
Up Next
Navy starts a three-match homestand with a Friday night match against Lafayette.
