Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Yale
Volleyball Splits Pair Of Five-Set Matches
September 17, 2011 | Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2011
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Army volleyball team split a pair of five-set matches on the final day of the Yale/Quinnipiac Tournament to move to 8-4 on the season. The Black Knights opened the morning with a 3-2 win over New Hampshire, but fell to host Yale in the nightcap, 3-2. Army went 2-1 for the tournament.
Junior OH Ariana Mankus totaled 16 kills in each match to lead all players. She also registered a double-double in both contests, as did freshman S Mary Vaccaro (assists, digs). Senior MB Rachel Willis combined for 28 kills and hit better than .250 in both matches, while sophomore MB Megan Wilton totaled 13 kills in each match. Willis and Wilton represented Army on the All-Tournament Team following Saturday's action.
Sophomore L D.J. Phee represented Army's digs leader for both contests, while Vaccaro totaled 99 assists on the day.
Army and New Hampshire traded sets before the Black Knights cruised to a 15-7 victory in the fifth to clinch the morning match. It was a battle of momentum as both teams registered convincing wins throughout the match. The win kept the Wildcats winless at 0-14.
Mankus totaled 16 kills to lead all players, while her 12 digs completed the double-double. Wilton and Vasquez both finished with 13 kills and hit around .300 for the match. The Black Knights hit for a blistering .643 percentage in the deciding set, racking up 11 kills and just two errors in 14 attempts.
The match featured just 10 ties and five lead changes throughout the five sets. Nine ties and five lead changes occurred during the opening set. Army and UNH traded points before the Black Knights prevailed (25-22). A Wildcat miscue broke an 18-18 tie and ignited a 7-4 Black Knight run to close the set. Willis registered two kills, while Mankus and Wilton came away with one kill each, during the decisive spurt.
New Hampshire rallied to tie the match at 1-1 with a convincing 25-14 win in set two, while the Black Knights delivered a crushing 25-11 win in the third set. New Hampshire led wire-to-wire in the fourth on its way to a 25-19 win to force the fifth set.
Army made a statement out of the gate, scoring the first eight points unanswered with Vaccaro at the service line. Four of the first eight points came via Army kills. The Black Knights continued to cruise the rest of the way, while a Wilton kill put the exclamation point on the nearly two-hour affair.
Army and Yale battled for two hours and 15 minutes before the Bulldogs scored the 3-2 win. The entire match featured 30 ties and 11 lead changes, while four of the five sets were decided by a total of 12 points. The Black Knights let a 2-0 lead slip away.
Army took a 1-0 lead with a 25-21 victor y in the opener. The Black Knights broke an 18-18 tie on a Yale error and went on to score seven of the final 10 points of the set. Mankus (two kills) and Wilton (one kill) helped the Army attack during the run, while Vaccaro and Wilton teamed for a pair of double-blocks.
The Black Knights kept the upper hand in the second session, breaking a 23-23 tie with on a Phee service ace. Army senior co-captain Fabiola Castro proceeded to notch back-to-back kills to end the set in Army's favor (25-23).
Yale came out in the third to score a 25-21 win. The Bulldogs held a 17-7 lead midway through the action. Army did come alive down the stretch and actually scored 14 of the final 22 points, but the early deficit was too much from which to recover. The Black Knights pulled within three (24-21), but Yale's Allie Frappier came up with the set-ending kill.
The Bulldogs dominated the fourth set, but not until later in the action. The teams played back-and-forth to start. Yale broke a 12-12 tie with five unanswered points and Army would get no closer the rest of the way. The Bulldogs tied the match with a 25-15 victory.
The fifth set alone featured seven ties with the final coming at 11-11 on a Vasquez kill. The Bulldogs scored three of the next four points and served for match-point with a 14-12 lead. A Mankus kill kept Army alive, but the Bulldogs went on to end the match thanks to a McHaney Carter kill.
This weekend's tournament served as the Black Knights' final tune-up before the start of Patriot League action. Army travels to the Lehigh Valley for its first two tests, taking on Lehigh on Friday night and Lafayette on Saturday afternoon.
Match Notes: Army is 3-1 in five-set matches this season ... the last time Army played two five-set matches in the same day was on the final day of the 2010 West Point Challenge.
