Army Edges Lehigh in Five-Set Battle

Friday, October 13

Bethlehem, Pa.

5 p.m.

Lehigh University

14-8, 5-3

Army West Point

12-8, 5-2

Army West Point

Lehigh

10/13/2017 8:52:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh came up just short in a nail-biting fifth set that ultimately resulted in a 27-25 victory for Army West Point as the Black Knights clinched the 3-2 victory Friday night in Grace Hall.

After Lehigh put together a dominant performance in the fourth set to tie the match, 2-2, it all came down to a fifth set to decide the winner. The fifth was the most evenly played sets of the night, neither team allowed the other to pull away with the score. Lehigh had match point on seven different occasions after going ahead 14-13, but the Black Knights had an answer each time.

Army finally broke the trend went into the driver's with a with a 21-20 lead. Then, it was Lehigh that refused to let victory slip away as Army had match point three times before finally breaking through on the fourth attempt as a Lehigh hitting error gave the Black Knights the necessary point to win the set and clinch the match.

Ana Spangenberg led all players with a career-high 25 kills and hit .316 in the match. Megan Polak record her eighth double-double of the season with her match-leading 45 assists and 13 digs. Sabrina Lancaster and Julia Pressly also reached double-figures with 13 and 10 kills on the night.

The Mountain Hawks completed just their third five-set match of the season and posted 68 kills which is the highest total in over two years for a Lehigh team. Lehigh posted a season-high 11 service aces while holding the league's top serving team to just one on the night, but countered its production with a season-high 12 service errors.

In the fifth set, Army posted a .375 attack percentage, its best of the night, to go along with 17 kills in the frame. Lehigh countered with a .245 attack percentage and a whopping 20 kills. The Black Knights displayed more efficient hitting as they posted just two attack errors to Lehigh's seven in the set.

The Mountain Hawks begin a grueling five-match road trip to start the second round of Patriot League contests. First up, is a trip to Holy Cross and Colgate next weekend. Lehigh will face the Crusaders on Friday night before taking on the Raiders on Saturday afternoon.