Volleyball completes comeback win over Colgate, earns 3-1 win against Raiders

By Army Athletic Communications Date: Tuesday, Oct 08, 2024 Time: 22:32 EST
Army Volleyball faced its second Patriot League opponent of the weekend on Oct. 6. The Black Knights dropped the first set to Colgate after a close battle, but soon hit their stride and surged to three straight set victories to claim the win over the Raiders in four sets. (Photo provided by Army Athletic Communications)

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army Volleyball faced its second Patriot League opponent of the weekend on Oct. 6. The Black Knights dropped the first set to Colgate after a close battle, but soon hit their stride and surged to three straight set victories to claim the win over the Raiders in four sets.

Junior outside hitter Mackenzie Lynch was in top form, tying her career-high in kills (23) on a .352 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Juliette Myrick dished out a career-best 46 assists across four sets of action while leading Army's defense with a career-best 22 digs.

The Black Knights dominated the blocking game with senior right side hitter Kingsley Wallace leading the match with 10 block assists as well as seven block assists from both Breelyn Bender and Tatum Grimes as Army’s middle blockers.

Black Knight Bullet Points

  • Mackenzie Lynch led the match in total kills on a tied-for-career best 23 kills and a .352 hitting percentage.
  • Army's pin hitters were efficient throughout the match as Chloe Murakami helped Lynch dominate on the outside with 19 kills and a .261 hitting percentage while Kingsley Wallace and Juliette Myrick tallied 12 kills and five kills respectively.
  • Lynch and Murakami held down the Black Knights' middle back defensively, picking up 16 digs apiece.
  • With the win, head coach Alma Kovaci Lee moves up to 322 total wins as Army's head coach, bringing her just five wins away from breaking Bob Gambardella's current record of 326 wins collected during his time as Army's head coach.

Coach's Corner
"I'm really proud of our performance tonight," said head coach Alma Kovaci Lee. "Even though we beat Holy Cross yesterday 3-0, we talked about it in the locker room after the match and we didn't feel like we played our absolute best. 

“We talked about the difference between are we just spending time going through the motions or are we investing time into our future, and they were all in agreement that could have played better yesterday and today they came in and they were just 'on' during this match. 

“They invested time in their future and that was really, really cool to see … I'm very proud of the team's performance today. Overall, we're proud of this team and we're going to continue to get better. The future is bright for Army Volleyball."