Volleyball Completes Comeback Win Over Colgate, Earns 3-1 Win Against Raiders

Sunday, October 6

West Point, NY

2:00 PM

Army West Point

7-8,3-3Patriot

Colgate

7-9,5-1Patriot

Colgate

Army West Point

Volleyball Completes Comeback Win Over Colgate, Earns 3-1 Win Against Raiders

October 06, 2024 | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

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

Junior outside hitter Mackenzie Lynch was in top form tonight, 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 rightside hitter Kingsley Wallace leading the match from 10 block assists as well as seven block assists from both Breelyn Bender and Tatum Grimes as Army's middle blockers.

Match Recap
The Black Knights showdown with the 2023 Patriot League Champions was a demonstration of force from both squads as they clashed in the opening points.

Army fought aggressively for the early lead as Wallace, Grimes, and Murakami hammered the Raiders' defense with kills.

A quick 7-3 run for Colgate brought the visitors into the lead with a set of kills and a pair of aces.

Determined to keep their momentum from Saturday's win over Holy Cross, Wallace and Lynch buried back-to-back kills to bring the two squads tied at 13-13.

The Raiders briefly pulled ahead, but Grimes and Murakami put away a series of kills to take Army to a 16-15 lead before a 5-1 run for Colgate brought the visitors across the 20-point threshold.

The Black Knights pulled within one point of Colgate on a kill from Lynch, who closed the gap to one-point minutes later after the Raiders opened the difference.

Army's squad fought to even the score, but the Raiders hassled the Black Knights throughout the final points and claimed the first set 25-22.

Not willing to go quietly, the Black Knights hit the ground running as the second frame and did not slow down for a second.

In a tour de force from Army's lineup, the Black Knights logged kills and aces left and right as they exposed holes Colgate's defense to surge ahead to a 16-4 lead through the opening half of set two.
The Raiders fought back with a 7-3 lead of their own but Army felt the heat and continued to squeeze Colgate all the way to a 25-12 final score in the second frame.

Colgate came back swinging after the long break, going toe-to-toe with Army as the two found themselves at a tied score 11 times over the course of the set.

The Raiders looked to have the edge as the set wore on, finding leads at 10-7 and 14-11 before the Black Knights kicked it into gear and climbed back up to a tie at 19-19.

Lynch lit up Colgate's defense with a trio of kills, joined by Wallace, Grimes, and Murakami to clinch their second set win of the match.

The Raiders continued to challenge Army, gaining a 4-2 edge over Army before the Black Knights fought into the lead once more at 6-4 on a kill from Grimes.

The visitors battled back into the lead at 12-10 but could not get comfortable as Army tied things up with a Murkami kill and a block from Bender and Wallace then pushed to a 16-14 lead on back-to-back kills from Lynch.

The two continued to trade blows as the fourth set drew near the end with Colgate finding the first set point opportunity on a pair of kills.

The Black Knights capitalized on a service error from the Raiders with a kill from Lynch to earn a set point opportunity of their own.

A Raider block evened the score before Army attacking error poised Colgate for set point once more.

Lynch and Grimes delivered a well-timed block to pull the squads even and the Raiders logged a mishit to give Army set point opportunity before Colgate bounced back for their third set-point opportunity of the fourth frame.

Army broke the stalemate on a pair of Murakami kills and another block from the duo of Wallace and Bender to claim both the third set win and the 3-1 win over the defending Patriot League champions.

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.
Myrick was an undeniable game changer as half of Army's 6-2, dishing out 46 assists, shattering her previous career high in assists of 39 recorded in a five-set match against Loyola, as well as picking up a match-best and career-high 22 digs.
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."

"Mack [Mackenzie] Lynch was unbelievable today and Chloe [Murakami] did a great job on the outside as well," Kovaci Lee continued. "At the beginning of the game, our goal was to serve them tough and when that slowed down at times struggled a little bit, but we served tough and played good defense and doing that is doing hard work – serving tough and playing defense is hard work. You know, everybody wants to swing and get kills, but playing tough defense is what got us those extra balls up so we could have more opportunities for kills."

"So, our offensive worked really well today. J [Juliette] Myrick and Naomi [Chinchar] did a great job running out hitters and defensively, we improved quite a bit today," Kovaci Lee finished. "By points, we played good volleyball – we had 20 more points than Colgate, so 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."

Up Next
Army will hit the road for their next Patriot League matchup, traveling to Easton, Pa. to take on Lafayette at the Kirby Sports Center on Friday, Oct. 11^th at 7pm ET.

Follow Along
For complete coverage of Army West Point women's volleyball, follow the Black Knights on Twitter and Instagram at @ArmyWP_VB and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.