Navy W-VB Sweeps Army In Patriot League Semis; Advances To Championship Game
WASHINGTON
, DC – In a completely dominant performance Saturday evening at the 2017 Patriot League Women’s Volleyball Semi-Finals, the Navy Midshipmen (23-7) swept past the Army Black Knights (18-12), three sets to none (25-15; 25-15; 25-22) to advance to the championship game Sunday afternoon.
The trio of Freshman OH Maddi Sgattoni, Senior OH Maggie Phillips and Sophomore MH Sarena Seelbach each recorded seven kills for Navy and Sgattoni would add three service aces in the victory.
Army though would get the first point of the match from a kill by Senior OH Amber Clay. Seelbach’s kill on the 13th point of the first set gave the Midshipmen a 9-4 lead and Army had to burn a time out.
Navy was relentless out of the time out and used a 5-2 run before they called for a time out, leading 14-6. Out of the time out, Clay recorded another Army kill before Navy went on a 4-0 run and had their biggest lead of the set at 18-7.
After the Black Knights trimmed Navy’s lead down to 23-15, a Seelbach kill and and Army attack error gave Navy the first set, 25-15.
Continuing their dominance into the second set, Navy raced out to an 8-2 lead and Army had to call time out. The Black Knights would have a 3-0 run a few point later in the set and that forced Navy to call time out with the Midshipmen up 12-7. Army would burn their final time out of the set, trailing 18-11. Deja vu started to set in as once again in the second set, as in the first, Navy found it’s lead trimmed down to 23-15. But for this set, it would be an Army service error and a Mattingly kill to give Navy another 25-15 set win and an over-whelming two sets to none lead.
Though the third set was the most competitive, Navy never trailed for a single point. Closest Army could come to Navy’s lead was two points twice, at 23-21 and then at 24-22. The Midshipmen would only need that one match point as Senior OPP Tara Dotzauer had the final kill of the match and Navy took the third set, 25-22 and won the semi-final match three sets to none.
As the #2 seed in the tournament, Navy will now take on the #1 seed American University 3:00 PM EST Sunday afternoon for the 2017 Patriot League Women’s Volleyball Championship and for the winner, an automatic bid into the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament. More than likely, the loser will see it’s season come to an end.
