Mountain Hawks can't overcome defending Patriot League champ Navy, fall 3-0

Saturday, October 5

Annapolis, Md.

12:00 PM

Lehigh University

9-9, 2-2

Navy

7-7, 2-1

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Lehigh	18	17	17	0
Navy	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Josh Liddick

Mountain Hawks can't overcome defending Patriot League champ Navy, fall 3-0

10/5/2019 3:25:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — After a tough defeat at the hands of American on Friday night, the Lehigh volleyball team had the intention of getting a game back against Navy on Saturday afternoon, but it just wasn't meant to be, falling to the Midshipmen, 3-0 (18-25, 17-25, 17-25) at Wesley A. Brown Field House. With the defeat, Lehigh falls to an even 9-9 record overall with a 2-2 Patriot League record through the first four matches.

The first set was the most successful for Lehigh despite the end result, as the Mountain Hawks kept the match close early with a tie at 9 after a Sabrina Lancaster kill and a Navy attack error. The Midshipmen got out to a commanding 17-12 lead before Lehigh turned on the jets and went on a 6-0 run to eventually take an 18-17 lead. Three of those six points were single-handedly scored by Sabrina Lancaster on three kills from Sarah Carman and then a block assist between Lancaster and Lauren Bright.

That would be all she wrote for Lehigh, however, as Navy finished the set on a 8-0 run to take the first, 25-18 and get out to a 1-0 lead in the match.

Navy took control of the second set, going on a 6-2 run to open before head coach Alexa Keckler called a timeout. Lehigh tried to inch closer, but the Midshipmen ended up going up 16-8 before Keckler called the second timeout of the set. After Lancaster notched another kill from Carman, Navy scored the final two points of the set capped off by a Julia Pressly attack error and Maddi Sgattoni block to take the second, 25-17. For the second day in a row, the Mountain Hawks found themselves in a win-or-go home scenario.

The third set didn't start off as planned despite Lancaster getting Lehigh on the board first with a kill. Navy scored four points in a row to take a 4-1 lead. Trailing 9-5, the Mountain Hawks ended up rattling off four straight points to tie the set up at 9 and forcing the Midshipmen to take a timeout. Navy took five of the next six points to take a 14-10 lead before Keckler called a timeout for Lehigh. After another Lehigh timeout while trailing 18-13, Navy won two more points to take a 20-13 lead before Hannah Wright got the kill to get a point back. An Emily Poole block after the Sofia Hruby attack error was the final score for Lehigh at 22-17 before Navy claimed the final three points to come away with the 25-17 set win and the match, 3-0.

For the contest, Lehigh ended up hitting .098 as a team with 28 kills. The closest stat category between the two teams was in digs as Navy led 26-23.

Sabrina Lancaster led the way for Lehigh with 10 kills, her fifth straight match with double-digit kills. Hannah Wright, Lauren Bright and Ava Hudson each finished with four kills, while Julia Pressly and Emily Poole added three. Poole led the way with a .286 attack percentage and two total blocks, a block assist and a solo block. Sarah Carman had 26 assists, while Natalie Mavroidis and Jess Donaldson led the way with six digs each.

The Mountain Hawks will look to re-group when they return to Bethlehem next weekend to host Colgate next Friday at 7 p.m. and Army West Point next Saturday at 3 p.m. inside Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Both matches will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.

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