Mids Home for Two League Matches this Weekend

Friday vs. Bucknell at 7 p.m., Saturday vs. Colgate at 4 p.m.

	Abbie Merkl

Oct. 4, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The second of four-straight weekends of home matches against Patriot League opponents for the Navy volleyball team will take place this week when the Midshipmen play host to Bucknell and Colgate in Macdonough Hall. The Mids will face the Bison Friday at 7 p.m., with Saturday's match against the Raiders slated to begin at 4 p.m.

Navy enters the weekend tied for fifth place in the Patriot League with a 1-2 record, Bucknell is tied for third place with a 2-1 league mark and Colgate is tied for first with a 3-0 record.

"This is an important weekend for us," said Navy head coach Mike Schwob. "We're almost at the halfway point in our league season, so these matches mean a lot towards who will be in and who will be out of the playoffs.

"We did play well in our recent matches against Army and American, but they were still losses. As well as we played those nights, we have to play even better in all facets of our game this week to come away with victories against two teams who are ahead of us in the standings. We have to be ready to go physically, mentally and emotionally from the first point Friday."

Navy began the league season by winning a three-game match at Holy Cross, then dropped a four-game decision at Army and suffered a five-game setback to American in Annapolis. The Mids as a team are outhitting their league opponents, .217-.181, and have averaged 2.25 aces per game while allowing opponents to average 1.67 aces per game. Navy also holds a slim advantage over its foes in both kills and digs per game, but trails in blocks per game by a 1.75-1.50 average.

Rachel Dougherty (Sr., Derwood, Md.) and Jessie Sims (Jr., Etowah, N.C.) are pacing the Navy offense with averages of 4.42 and 4.17 kills per game, with Alexa Gibbs (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) knocking down 3.25 kills per game. No one else on the Navy squad is averaging over 2.00 kills per game, however, as the aforementioned trio has accounted for 142 of Navy's 172 kills against league opponents. Both Dougherty and Marissa Watson (Jr., Redondo Beach, Calif.) are averaging a team-high .417 service aces per game, while Sims has posted a Navy-best .316 hitting percentage.

Defensively for Navy, Aimee' Burns (Sr., Dallas, Texas) is hauling in 3.67 digs per game, Sims ranks second to Burns at 3.17 digs per game, and Krista Eschelman (So., Germantown, Md.) leads Navy with an average of 1.00 blocks per game.

The Mids have posted an 11-7 record on the entire season.

Bucknell opened league play by posting three-game sweeps over Lehigh and Lafayette before dropping a four-game contest to Colgate. The Bison are averaging over four more kills per game than their opponents are during the young league campaign (17.10-12.80) and hold a 2.60-1.10 service-aces-per-game advantage over their foes.

Individually for the Bison, Jenna Henderson leads the squad in kills with an average of 4.80 kills per game. She has taken 111 of the team's 426 attempts (26.1%) during the league season. Henderson is joined in multiple kills per game by Heidi Kamp and Kaitlin Segal with averages of 3.40 and 3.30 kills per game, respectively. Kamp is pacing the Bison with a .358 attack percentage and a 1.30 blocks-per-game average. Segal is averaging a team-high 1.00 service aces per game against league opponents, while Jennifer Rupp's 4.70 digs-per-game mark is the best on the team.

Both Navy and Bucknell, 8-9 on the full season, have lost to Cornell and posted three-game victories over Saint Francis (Pa.) this year. The Mids lost to the Big Red in five games and the Bison dropped a four-game decision to the three-time defending Ivy League champions.

Colgate also recorded season-opening sweeps over Lafayette and Lehigh prior to its match against Bucknell. The biggest statistical difference between the Raiders and their foes is in hitting percentage. Colgate's offense has totaled a .232 hitting percentage in league matches, while its foes are hitting a combined .077. The Raiders as a team are averaging 18.10 digs per game and 1.90 blocks per game, well in front of the 15.80 digs and 1.50 blocks-per-game averages posted by their trio of opponents.

Five different Raiders are averaging multiple kills per game this season, with Katrina Zawojski and Merryl Pohl's averages of 3.78 and 3.40 kills per game, respectively, leading the team. Four of the five players who are averaging multiple kills have also compiled hitting percentages of over .250. Headlining the Colgate defense is libero Jackie Adlam, who is hauling in 7.30 digs per game, as well as Casey Ritt, who is tallying 1.00 blocks per game.

Colgate has posted an 8-8 overall record this year, with its three-game loss to Binghamton Tuesday night ending a six-match winning streak during which the Raiders dropped just two games. The Raiders will play Friday at American (3-0) prior to facing the Mids.