Navy W-Volleyball Shuts Out Loyola (MD)
BALTIMORE, Md. – Coming off back to back matches against Army a
nd American that saw the Navy Midshipmen squander 2 sets to 0 leads in each to lose both of them, 3-2, they would going to try their hardest to not make this a trend as they just went about 30 miles north of Annapolis to take on the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds at Reitz Arena.
Navy (18-5; 8-2 Patriot League) would get 14 kills from Freshman OH Maddie Sgattoni as they would defeat Loyola (MD) (8-14; 3-7 Patriot League) in straight sets, 25-19; 25-13; 25-22. Greyhounds Senior OH Ann Ernst lead her team with 11 kills.
A first set that saw six ties when finally at 6-6, the Greyhounds would go on a 7-3 run to take a 13-9 lead on a kill by Sophomore MB Molly Jarvis. Navy would follow that up with a 6-2 run of their own, tying the score at 15-15 when Sophomore MH Sarena Seelbach was credited with a kill.
Navy would not squander the lead for the rest of the set and on a kill by Senior OPP Dorothy Murray, they took the first set, 25-19 and a one set to none lead.
An exact repeat of what happened in the first set after the first 12 points (the score was once again tied at 6-6). When Seelbach’s attempted kill ended in an error, Loyola gained the 7-6 advantage.
From there, the Midshipmen took control of the set, outscoring the Greyhounds, 19-6 and on a kill by Sgattoni, Navy captured the second set, 25-13 and a commanding two sets to none lead.
But as mentioned above, the last two Navy matches saw the very same thing as both Army and American rallied from two sets down and took the last three to win the match. This afternoon’s third set would be eerily similar.
Navy gained the first two-point lead of the third set, 6-4 on Seelbach’s kill. Loyola then went on it’s most productive run of the match, a 7-0 run on a kill by Greyhounds Freshman MB Mackenzie Fedota, back to back attack errors by Seelbach, a kill by Greyhounds Senior OH Ann Ernst, an attack error by Sgattoni and another attack error by Seelbach. The run would end on a service ace by Greyhounds Senior OH Stacey Kazalas. It game Loyola a their biggest lead of the night in any set, 11-6.
The Midshipmen would bump and attack and kill and serve their way back into the match but when Greyhounds Junior MB Haley Paddy registered back to back kills, they were now up 17-13.
In the previous two games, this was the point of the match where Navy had wilted and stopped doing what had given them that two sets lead. Today, there was going to be a different ending to this story.
Navy went on a 4-0 run ending on Sophomore MH Melissa Carter’s kill and tied the third set, 17-17.
Loyola’s last lead of the match came on Fedota’s kill and a 20-19 slender advantage. Navy would battle back to tie the set at 22, when both Sgattoni and Murray each had a kill and then on their first match point, Sgattoni would serve a service ace and Navy took the third set, 25-22 and shut out Loyola in the match, three sets to none.
The Midshipmen’s next match is scheduled for Friday, when the Holy Cross Crusaders (3-19; 0-9) pay a visit to Wesley A. Brown Field House for a 7:00 pm start time.
