Volleyball to Play in the Pentagon

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point volleyball team is set to travel to Washington, D.C., for the Service Academy Challenge where the Black Knights will face Air Force and California in the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and Harvard at Fort Myer on Sept. 12.

"It is a great opportunity to be part of such a special event," said head coach Alma Kovaci. "The tournament is in honor of Sept. 11, and we are excited to give our team the opportunity to play amongst their biggest fans and future mentors in the military. It is a diverse tournament and we will be able to play teams from all different conferences. It is a great opportunity for our program to play high level teams in unique venues."

The Black Knights suffered a 3-1 loss to Marist on Wednesday evening to fall to 4-3 on the season. Vanessa Edwards and Jaden Pickell led Army's efforts after both players achieved double-doubles. Edwards dished out 34 assists and tallied 15 digs, while Pickell notched 12 kills and 12 digs. Carolyn Bockrath and Nicole Perri were both in double digits in kills with 10 each.

Army will face service academy rival Air Force for the first time in two years on Friday at 12 p.m. in the Pentagon Athletic Center. The Black Knights trail the Falcons in the all-time series 9-6, but defeated Air Force, 3-2, in 2013 when they last met at the Service Academy Challenge.

The Falcons enter the tournament with a 2-6 mark. Air Force defeated Navy 3-1 on Sept. 9 when they played in Annapolis, Md.

Prior to the game against the Mids, Akokwe Clement leads the Falcons in kills with 90 on 264 attempts for a hitting percentage of .121. Sarah Hellman is Air Force's starting setter and averages 5.41 assists per set. Raquel Rosa leads the team in blocks with .89 per set.

The Black Knights will square-off against California Berkley at 6:30 p.m. on Friday also at the Pentagon. This will be the first meeting between the Bears and Black Knights.

Cal is 3-3 on the season with wins over Nevada, Eastern Washington and UNLC. Belen Castillo leads the Bears on offense with 51 kills on 165 attempts and is closely followed by Lara Vukasovic who tallies 48 kills for a .435 hitting percentage. Alyssa Jensen is Cal's setter and averages 8.52 assists per set. Defensively, Vukasovic is a power at the net with 25 total blocks on the year.

On Saturday, Army will face Harvard at the Fort Myer Fitness Center to close-out the Service Academy Challenge at 1 p.m. The Black Knights lead the Crimson 3-1 in the all-time series and last met in 1997.

Harvard enters the weekend with a 1-2 record after opening its season this past weekend. The Crimson defeated Rutgers, 3-0, at its home invitational. Kathleen Wallace tallied 27 kills in the team's opening weekend to lead the Crimson, while Corinne Bain dished out 51 assists and 22 kills.

There will be no live stats or video for any match and, due to security restrictions at the Pentagon and Fort Myers, all spectators have already been selected and screened.

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Volleyball to Play in the Pentagon

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Players Mentioned

Carolyn Bockrath

Vanessa Edwards

Nicole Perri

Jaden Pickell

Army West Point Athletics