Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
7-10, 3-2Patriot
Loyola Maryland
2-14, 0-3Patriot
Volleyball Sweeps Visiting Loyola
October 04, 2014 | Volleyball
WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army volleyball team captured its second consecutive straight-set victory by defeating Loyola on Saturday night by scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-13.
The win pushes Army's Patriot League record to 3-2 and its overall mark to 7-10. Loyola drops to 2-14 on the season and 0-3 in conference matches.
“I’m very proud of our performance tonight,” head coach Alma Kovaci said. “It was a continuation of our practices this week and I think the team is realizing that if they play together and hold each other accountable good things will happen. I thought Nicole Perri did an outstanding job, but I think our success started with Vanessa Edwards, and Janaya Simmons was also a key player for us tonight. I’m very proud of the energy we are playing with right now and are looking forward to tomorrow’s match against American.”Army jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the opening set and forced Loyola to call for time. The Greyhounds bounced back to score three of the next four points out of the timeout and trimmed the deficit to 13-9 before a kill down the line by Nicole Perri. Vanessa Edwards followed Perri's spike with consecutive aces as Army extended its advantage to 16-9. The next two points went to Loyola, prior to Perri dropping a kill in behind Loyola's block attempt and a kill by Alexandra Bell that prompted another Loyola timeout with Army in control 18-11. Molly McDonald's kill and an ace from Jaden Pickell ended the 4-0 spurt as Army led 20-11. The Black Knights went on to take the first set by a final of 25-17.
In the second set Loyola came out with seven of the first 10 points to secure the early advantage. After Army used a timeout at 7-3, the Black Knights put down three of the next four and trailed 8-6. An ace by Edwards tied the game at 10-10 as Loyola called timeout to halt Army's 7-3 stretch. Edwards' fourth ace of the match put Army on top following the timeout and Perri added a kill that made it 12-10 in favor of the home team. Up 17-14 after a Loyola timeout, Army and Loyola eventually played to a 20-20 tie. From that point, Army regained a two-point lead at 22-20, and went to set point on Pickell's ace. Loyola scored twice to make it 24-23 before Army called timeout. Clay's spike ended the game as Army took a 2-0 lead in the match.
Army continued to play well early in the third set and led 6-2 after the first eight points when Loyola used a timeout. Army's lead ballooned to 14-6 with Gearon on serve and Loyola was forced to use its final timeout on Clay's kill. The Black Knights had the lead at double digits (17-7) and led by as many as 12 in the 25-13 triumph.
Perri led Army offensively with 14 kills and Clay ended the night with 13. Gearon had five kills and a .625 hitting percentage to pace the Army offense. Edwards set a new career-high with six aces, added six digs and led all players with 36 assists. Defensively, rookie Shannel Chong posted 16 digs, two shy of her season high, while Janaya Simmons and Jaden Pickell each added five digs.
Army returns to the court at Gillis Field House on Sunday afternoon when it hosts American. First serve is slated for 4 p.m. against the defending Patriot League champions and can be seen live online on Knight Vision.
