ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Lafayette College volleyball team dropped its final match of the season, 3-2, to Navy on Sunday afternoon in Annapolis.

Three Leopards recorded double-digit kills in the loss. Freshman Ellie Carrera-Justiz led the way for the Leopards with a season and career-high 21 kills. Sophomore Leanna Deegan notched 15 and sophomore Grace Tulevech had 13.

The first set saw the Lafayette (13-19, 2-14 PL) taking the first two points off attack errors by Navy (16-11, 10-5 PL) but Navy would go on a four-point scoring run to put their lead to 14-8 and from there would run away with the set one victory, 25-15.

The Midshipman would open the second set the opposite way of the first set, getting the first two points to take the early 2-0 lead. They would then go up 3-1 but Lafayette would respond with a four-point scoring run to take the 5-3 lead. They would hold the set lead until Navy would even up the score off an attack error by Deegan.

The set would be tied four more times before the Leopards would go on another four sport scoring run to take a 16-12 lead. Navy would try to counter with a three-point scoring run of its own and would bring the score within three, 19-16. They would try to continue their run but the Leopards would hold on to close it out and get the 25-20 set two win.

The third set would be tied 2-2 to start off. Lafayette would take 4-2 lead and Navy would push a comeback attempt but the Maroon and White were able to hang on until they committed back-to-back errors to tie the set up at eight points each.

The set would be tied 13 more times, bringing the score to 25-25. Navy would put down a kill and a service aces to eventually win the set 27-25 to head into a fourth set.

Navy then jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the fourth set and from there would push their lead to 7-5. The Leopards would then start a comeback with a kill by Deegan and a service ace by Carrera-Justiz to make it 7-7. The Midshipman would pull ahead to make it 13-11 but the Leopards would respond with a three-point scoring run off three kills in a row by Carrera-Justiz to take the 14-13 lead.

The two sides would go back and forth, point for point, until the Leopards jumped out to a 20-18 lead off kills by Tulevech and Deegan. They would then cap off the set with a three-point scoring run to make it 23-19 and would finish off the set victory with a kill by junior Madi Wahrmund to force a 15-point fifth set for the eight time this season.

Navy jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the final set before the Leopards would tie it up at four points each. They would then take a 9-7 lead off a kill by senior Katrina Ruggiero but Navy would counter with a four point scoring run to give them the 11-9 lead.

Lafayette would take a 15-14 lead off an attack error by Navy but the Midshipmen would eventually close out the set with a three-point scoring run to take the final set 17-15 and the match 3-2.

The match serves as the final contest for seniors Julia Howard, Sonia Musso, Katrina Ruggerio and Ava Embry. The class of 2020 helped to turn a program around this season, capped off by a 10 match win streak and winning its first Patriot League matches since 2017