Volleyball Hosts Final Home Matches of Season

Friday, October 30

West Point, NY

7 PM

Army West Point

Loyola

Volleyball Hosts Final Home Matches of Season

October 29, 2015 | Volleyball

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point volleyball returns to Gillis Field House to host its final home matches of the season Oct. 30-31. The Black Knights will face Loyola Friday at 7 p.m. and American on Saturday at 5 p.m. for senior day.

"The team looks good at this point in our season," said head coach Alma Kovaci. "One thing we focus on is being hungry and that fuels the team every day in and out. It is nice to see them fight in practices every day to make us better."

Army improved its winning streak to seven-straight with, 3-1, victories over both Holy Cross and Colgate last week. Six double-double performances were recorded by four different players in the conference wins.

"The second half of the season becomes interesting because teams seem to scout you very well and Colgate is a great example of that," said Kovaci. "They took us a little by surprise, but we changed up our defense and the girls fought really hard and we won game two. I was really proud of them for winning that match after making an adjustment."

Vanessa Edwards tallied 55 assists and 12 digs against Holy Cross and added 51 helpers and 14 digs versus Colgate. She now totals 15 double-doubles this season and 39 in her career.

Amber Clay also had two double-doubles last week with 17 kills and 14 digs against the Crusaders and 13 kills and 14 digs opposite the Raiders. Nicole Perri had 18 kills and a career-high 14 digs against Holy Cross, while also leading the offense versus Colgate with 17 kills. Jaden Pickell recorded 10 kills and 13 digs in the Black Knights' win over the Raiders.

The Cadets enter the weekend with a 17-6 overall and 9-1 record in the league. Army will honor first classmen Edwards, Perri and Justin Dalme prior to the match against American Saturday night.

"Vanessa and Nicole are two outstanding individuals," Kovaci commented. "It is rare to find people like them. For four years they have worked hard on and off the court and their leadership to our young team has been very valuable. They will be missed, and I am very proud of the careers they've had with the Army volleyball program."

Carolyn Bockrath (.433) and Vanessa Wesley (.414) still reside at the top two spots in the Patriot League for hitting percentage. The two are the only in the league to hit over .400.

Edwards is the only setter in the conference who averages double-digit assists with 10.51 assists per set. Libero Shannel Chong is No. 1 in digs per set with an average of 4.55.

The Greyhounds are 6-19 overall and 1-9 in conference play. The Black Knights defeated Loyola 3-0 earlier this season with Perri (10k) and Bockrath (6k) leading the offense.

Molly Cichosz leads the Greyhounds with 263 kills and averages 3.02 kills per set. Haley Puddy leads the team in blocks with 0.99 per set.

American enters the weekend 20-6, 11-0. The Eagles defeated Army, 3-0, earlier this season Monika Smidova leads the team offensively with a hitting percentage of .365 to rank third in the conference. Erin Swartz leads the league with 87.0 total blocks this season to average 1.24 blocks per set.

"American is a very experienced team," said Kovaci. "They have a lot of seniors and they also have international athletes. I think confidence is something that highlights them this season, they play with confidence because they have won championships before and they talk about it. I think it is going to be a tough match, all I ask of our players is to go out there and be confident in their ability to play as a team. We need to focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself."

Army and American lead in all but one team category in conference statistics. The Black Knights have an edge in assists, kills and digs, while the Eagles lead in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage and blocks.

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