Lehigh falls 3-1 at Navy

Friday, November 1

Annapolis, MD

7:00 PM

Lehigh University

17-7, 8-4PL

Navy

11-12, 7-4PL

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Lehigh	25	19	13	23	1
Navy	15	25	25	25	3

11/1/2013 9:11:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Despite winning the first set, the Lehigh volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (25-15, 19-25, 13-25, 23-25) match at Navy on Friday night. The Mountain Hawks fell to 8-4 in the Patriot League, while the Mids improved to 7-4.

"Navy competed really well," said head coach Bob Bertucci. "We crushed them in the first game but they came back and competed really well. Our outside hitters are going to have to start producing more because that seems to be our weakness at this point."

The Mids got out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set, but Lehigh answered with a 4-1 run of its own to tie the set at five. The teams exchanged points, resulting in four different tied scores until the set was notched at ten apiece. Lehigh picked up five straight points to take a 15-10 advantage thanks to five Navy attack errors and a block from senior Amanda Clark and sophomore Amy Matula. The Mids got one point back, but another four straight points put the Mountain Hawks up 19-11. Navy was able to put four more points on the board, but a slew of Mid attack errors and kills from junior Jade Van Streepen and sophomore Ana Vrhel eventually closed out the set, 25-15, to give Lehigh a 1-0 advantage. The Mountain Hawk defense stifled Navy's offense, as the Mids hit -0.043 in the opening set.

Navy started with another 4-1 lead in the second set, but the Mountain Hawks battled back to knot the score at seven. Navy attack errors gave Lehigh three more points before the Mids started to hit their stride with three kills, a block and a service ace to take a 14-10 lead and force the Mountain Hawks to call a timeout. After a kill from Van Streepen, Navy tallied five straight points to take a 19-12 lead. The Mountain Hawks tried to battle back, but Navy's advantage proved to be too much as the Mids took a 25-19 second set victory to tie the match at one.

The third set was tied at three before Navy let loose on a 13-7 run to take a 16-10 lead. An ensuing 4-2 run from the Mids forced a Lehigh timeout as Navy took a 20-12 lead. Navy scored three straight points out of the timeout before a kill from Vrhel gave the Mountain Hawks a point back. It wasn't enough as a Lehigh attack error and kill from Navy's Erin Fortner gave the Mids a 25-13 set three victory and 2-1 match advantage.

Lehigh led 4-2 in the early-goings of the fourth set before back-to-back kills from Navy tied the set at four. After six more tie scores, Navy eventually took a 20-17 lead. Lehigh capitalized on an attack error from Navy's Alex Cassel and Clark added a kill to trim the Mids' lead to 20-19 and force a Navy timeout. Matula and Clark stepped up to stuff a Navy attempt that was followed by an attack error from Cassel which tied the set at 21. The scoreboard was knotted at 22 and 23 before back-to-back Navy kills gave the Mids the 25-23 set victory and 3-1 match win.

Despite the loss, Vrhel impressed with 14 kills and a .455 hitting percentage. Matula tallied 33 assists, 14 digs, three blocks and three kills. Senior Rachel Charles notched a team-leading 15 digs.

"Anna competed very well and I wish we could have gotten more balls to her," said Bertucci. "I thought Rachel and Amy played well, in addition to Mariah Brantley."

The Mountain Hawks look to rebound Saturday at 4 p.m. when they head to Loyola. Lehigh will be looking for its fifth straight win over the Greyhounds.

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