Volleyball Continues Streak, Sweeps Marist

Tuesday, September 13

Poughkeepsie, NY

7 PM

Army West Point

7-4

Marist

0-10

Army

Marist

Volleyball Continues Streak, Sweeps Marist

September 13, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The Army West Point volleyball team continued its hot streak with a 3-0 sweep of crosstown rival Marist Tuesday night. The Black Knights improved to 7-4 on the season and won their sixth-straight, three set decision matches.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND MATCH NOTES

Allie Strong led the charge again for the Cadets with 13 kills. Vanessa Wesley (10) and Olivia Fairfield (9) also chipped in on the Black Knights' offense, while Sydney Morriss added eight of her own.
Fairfield recorded a hitting percentage of .529 in the match, just shy of her career-high, and had no errors, while Morriss hit .357 and Strong hit .345.
Haven Bethune quarterbacked Army's offense with 33 assists and also added two kills of her own. Nikki Lum pitched in with nine assists in the match as well.
On the defensive side of the ball, Wesley led both teams with four blocks and was followed by Bethune who tallied three along with Morriss and Fairfield who each notched two. Megan Bryn steadied the squad with 12 digs. Strong was one dig shy of a double-double with nine, while Ellie Petersen and Amber Clay combined for 15 digs.
Overall, the Black Knights held an advantage over the Red Foxes (0-10) in points (56-43), kills (48-37), blocks (6-2), assists (47-37) and digs (48-39).
The Cadets snapped Marist's two-year winning streak to improve to 34-4 in the all-time series with their Hudson Valley rival.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Black Knights jumped ahead 12-8 in the first set after three-straight points. They continued their lead to 16-10, but a 4-0 run by the Red Foxes brought the set within two. Strong then strung two points together to propel Army forward.
Army then jumped ahead 23-19 with points from Wesley and Clay, but two consecutive points from Marist continued the set. Wesley was able to convert two more kills from Bethune to close-out the first set 25-21 to put the Black Knights on top.
In set two, the Cadets went on a 5-0 run early on to capture the lead over Marist at 15-13. After a few more tallies, Army scored three-straight points to pad its lead to 19-15.
The Black Knights captured the second set 25-19 after scoring five of the last six points. Morriss notched two of the points for Army.
The Cadets were leading the Red Foxes 15-11 in the third set, but Marist rallied with a 4-0 run to tie it up at 15-all. The Black Knights charged ahead 18-15 with points by Fairfield and Morriss and by capitalizing on a service error by their opponent.
Army was able to clinch the match off a three point run. Lum and Bryn connected to kick things off before Fairfield and Strong posted kills to win 25-19.

COACHES CORNER

"We played tough when we needed to tonight and pushed through to win it in three sets," said head coach Alma Kovaci Lee. "The players that came in off the rotation did a really nice job tonight. Nikki set almost the entire three set and performed well."
"Midweek matches are tough, but our ladies were focused and determined to get the win tonight. Marist played some really good volleyball today. They hit us where we weren't and dug us out, but eventually we adjusted on both sides of the ball and were able to pull it out each set."

UP NEXT

The Black Knights return to Gillis Field House after a month of travel for the West Point Invitational this weekend. Army will play host to Albany, Delaware State, St. John's and UConn Friday and Saturday.

For up-to-date information about Army volleyball, please follow @ArmyWP_VB on Twitter and Instagram.