Final Stats

EASTON, Pa. ÃÆ'Æ’¢ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡¬ÃÆ'¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…â€Å" The Leopards' 2016 season came to a close after falling to Navy 3-1 (25-22, 9-25, 9-25, 26-28) in a Patriot League match on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center.

Junior Elizabeth Walsh racked up a team-high 11 kills in the Leopards' (4-22, 2-14 PL) loss to the Midshipmen (19-8, 9-6 PL). Jet Manzi was the other Leopard to accumulate double-digit kills on the afternoon as the senior captain put up 10 in her final game for Lafayette.

Juniors' Katie Kidder and Tori Smith each recorded double-digit digs, while freshman Julia Howard dished out 21 assists.

Manzi set the tone in the opening set with five kills, while Walsh and Smith combined for seven. It was a back-and-forth affair for a while and the Leopards took a 17-16 lead after an 8-3 run that was sparked by a Smith kill and capped off by a Katherine Stevens' ace.

Lafayette jumped ahead by four, 24-20, before Navy scored back-to-back points to trim the deficit to two. However, Lafayette took the set following a Midshipmen attacking error.

Despite grabbing the first set win, the Leopards dropped the next two as Navy went on a bevy of big runs.

The Leopards returned to the court for the fourth set and pieced together a solid performance as they worked tirelessly to avoid the set loss and found themselves in another nail-biter. Once again it was Manzi leading the way with another five-kill set.

The score was even at 15-15 before the Leopards went on a 5-1 run. However, Navy countered with a 6-2 run to knot the game back up. Following two consecutive Navy attacking errors, the Leopards were one point away from forcing a fifth set.

Navy burned their second timeout and out of the break, while trailing 24-22, went on to outscore Lafayette 6-2 en route to the set and game victory.