July 10, 2024 • 38 mins
It's time to celebrate the accomplishments of Navy athletes over the last year! Join us as we take a look back at the top 10 most memorable moments in Navy sports.
First, we'll get you caught up on how things are looking with the Navy Football team with the season just around the corner. You'll get an update on the defense, and the new Hybrid Winged T offense. We'll check out how things look at the quarterback position.
From there, we'll get right into our Top 10 Countdown highlighting some of the best performances of the year by Navy athletes. Don't miss out on this epic reflection of Navy's stellar season, and be sure to share your favorite Navy sports moments with us by texting the show!
Related Links:
First, we'll get you caught up on how things are looking with the Navy Football team with the season just around the corner. You'll get an update on the defense, and the new Hybrid Winged T offense. We'll check out how things look at the quarterback position.
From there, we'll get right into our Top 10 Countdown highlighting some of the best performances of the year by Navy athletes. Don't miss out on this epic reflection of Navy's stellar season, and be sure to share your favorite Navy sports moments with us by texting the show!
Related Links:
- Navy Women's Tennis Wins the Patriot League Championships!
- Navy Volleyball Rallies to Beat Army and Win the Star!
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
Averi Miller finished with a total of 2748 sets for her career. Where does this rank her among all Navy Volleyball players?
A. 1st
B. 2nd
C. 3rd
D.4th
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
Averi Miller finished with a total of 2748 sets for her career. Where does this rank her among all Navy Volleyball players?
A. 1st
B. 2nd
C. 3rd
D.4th
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today.
On Navy Sports Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
To the official podcast of theNavy Sports Nation, where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
The sports season is now over,so I figured this would be a
good time to take a look back atsome of the most memorable
moments of the year in Navyathletics.
You can play along by checkinghow many matched up with yours
(00:34):
and then letting me know bysending a text.
And we haven't really talkedabout where the Navy football
team stood coming out of springpractices, so I do want to take
some time to share a fewthoughts on how the mids are
looking there.
Obviously, there's bound to besome questions, so I'll do what
I can to answer them, and thenwe'll go ahead and wrap things
up with our question of the day.
Things are pretty quiet in theyard, but there's still a lot to
talk about, so please don't goanywhere.
Okay, summer is here once againin the desert, which basically
(01:06):
means we are looking at tripledigit high temperatures for at
least the next two and a half,if not three, months.
That doesn't seem to be anissue with a lot of people,
though, because I just readwhere 111,000 people just moved
to Phoenix last year.
Anyway, whether you live hereor not, or whether you are a
regular or first time listener,thanks for taking the time.
So, as I said in the opening,we're going to take a look at
the top 10 moments of the2023-24 Navy sports season.
(01:29):
Before we start that countdown,though, I wanted to get you all
caught up on how things arelooking with the Navy football
team after the spring practiceis wrapped up.
I'm not going to go throughevery position on the depth
chart on this show.
We'll save that for a couple ofweeks before the season starts.
So today, I will give you athumbnail sketch of what the
defense will look like, and I'lldo my best to explain what you
can expect from Coach DrewCronick's hybrid wing tee
offense.
(01:49):
And finally, I also wanted togive you all an idea of how the
only two quarterbacks listed onthe roster did in the spring,
according to the coaches.
Of course, there'll be a couplemore quarterbacks joining the
team with the incoming class of2028, but we don't know who they
are yet, and even if we did,it's not likely that they'll be
under center on opening day.
Okay, first let's begin with thedefense, and I think the
(02:09):
logical place to start is thetransfer portal.
Was the defense significantlyimpacted by anyone who left?
Now, most everyone who followsthe team knows about Jake
Busic's situation.
He is at UCLA now after anappeal to use his last year of
eligibility at Navy was denied.
The only other notable playeron the defense who entered the
transfer portal was cornerbackElias Larry.
(02:30):
Now, he did figure in the midsdefense quite a bit during his
sophomore year and he did playin seven games last year.
I don't know if he was hurt toomuch or not, but the fact is he
didn't have the same kind ofnumbers his junior years.
He did his previous one and Iwas a little bit surprised that
he did enter the portal myself,but he ended up landing at
Colorado State.
So on balance, I don't thinkthe team was hurt too badly by
(02:52):
the portal.
I have to admit that it wouldhave been nice to have Jake
Busic on that defensive linethough.
Anyway, the defense undersecond year coordinator PJ
Volker is looking like it'sgoing to be every bit as tough
this year.
Coach Volker and his positioncoaches have done a great job
developing their players,starting with the defensive line
and continuing with thelinebackers all the way through
to the secondary, so I think youcan expect to see the same kind
(03:14):
of disruption that resulted inthree shutouts last year, which,
by the way, was among the bestin Division I football.
Moving over to the offense, I'velearned a little bit about
Coach Cronic's hybrid ring teethat I can share with you now.
Here are a couple of key pointsthat I've picked up.
Similar to the triple option,the hybrid ring tee is easy to
adapt to a team's personnel.
It employs a lot of angleblocking schemes, which does
(03:36):
tend to level the playing field,because undersized players can
still be effective against abigger opponent.
Lining up on defense.
The other thing about theoffense is its flexibility.
You can run lots of plays outof the same formation.
Now, with the triple option,you had basically the same
situation, but I think there areeven more choices available out
of a straightforward wing teesetup.
The main goal is to createconflicts for the defense by
(03:58):
overloading individual defenderswith choices and then forcing
them to make a decision and then, if the quarterback makes the
right read, it should be a goodresult.
This offense makes attackingthe flanks a priority.
All four backs those being thequarterback fullback and both
snipes, which is the new termthat we're gonna be using for
the slot backs they will all beactively involved on every play
and that'll be either carryingthe ball, blocking or executing
(04:19):
some sort of deceptive fake.
There will be opportunities forthe quarterback to throw the
ball as well, whether he startsfrom under center or from the
pistol, using some sort ofrun-pass option alignment.
Now, a minute ago I mentionedrunning multiple plays out of
the same basic formation.
I saw one video on YouTubewhere the offense ran a jet
sweep in either direction toattack the perimeter.
So that gives you two playsright there, and if the defense
(04:40):
gets really aggressive, the jetsweep counter uses a double
handoff and executes a reverseto try and catch the defense
over pursuing.
That's two more plays.
So now we're looking at four.
There are also two pass playsand an internal trap that can be
run out of the same alignment.
That makes a total of sevenplays.
So you can see you've got a lotof different places you can go
there, and that's just out ofone formation that I've named.
There's a bunch of others.
The hybrid ring tee has alsobeen adapted to run out of the
(05:02):
shotgun or the pistol formation,and that provides for more
opportunities for a lot of runpass option plays, and I'm
pretty fired up about thatbecause the Navy offense has
good speed on the perimeter.
So I'm looking forward to thereceivers, the snipes and maybe
even the tight ends gettingtheir hands on the ball a little
bit more often.
That brings us to the biggestquestion, which is who's going
to be the quarterback that leadsthis offense Right now?
There are only two choices andthat leads this offense right
(05:23):
now.
There are only two choices, andthey're both pretty good ones
for different reasons.
The first is Blake Horvath.
He is a junior from Hilliard,Ohio who checks in at 6'2 and
195 pounds, and he appeared infour games last year.
In fact he started one of thembefore having to leave with a
broken thumb and unfortunatelythat injury sidelined him for
the rest of the season.
But the one thing I did noticewhen Horvath was playing was
that he was pretty comfortablerunning the system that the
(05:44):
offense used last year.
He made some good reads andhe's got the speed and quickness
to break off some big gains.
According to quarterbacks coachIvan Jasper, the biggest area
Horvath needs to improve upon isconsistently transferring his
play and practice to what hedoes on game day.
So we're not going to have thefinal verdict on that until the
season starts.
The one area of developmentwhere Horvath has taken a big
jump forward, based on thecoaching staff's comments, is
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his passing ability.
He came from an option offensein high school so he didn't
throw the ball all that much,and last year he only attempted
12 passes, completing six ofthem for 84 yards.
One of those completionshappened to be a 68-yard
touchdown pass to EliHeidenreich against South
Florida, and it was a legit deepthrow too.
So he does have the armstrength.
What has really improved duringthe offseason is Horvath's
(06:26):
accuracy and his consistencymaking the different throws that
will need to be made in thisoffense.
The really good news is thatHorvath is back at 100%
following his thumb injury, andhe showed no ill effects from
that because he did a great jobin spring practice, which earned
him the number one spot goinginto the fall.
The other guy competing for thejob at quarterback is sophomore
Braxton Woodson.
He's listed at 6'3", 215 pounds, and is from Altamonte Springs,
(06:47):
florida, which is just north ofOrlando.
Now, the first thing thatcaught my attention was his
weight.
Last year he was right around200 pounds, so he's definitely
added some bulk, and that'sgoing to be a factor when he
runs the ball, because it'sgoing to make him even tougher
to bring down once he gets up afull head of steam.
Woodson also saw the field fourtimes in 2023, starting once
which I think was against AirForce.
(07:09):
He entered the SMU game afterXavier Arland had to leave due
to an injury and in the secondquarter he broke off a 69-yard
touchdown run, showing off somepretty impressive straight-line
speed.
He ended up finishing the yearwith 242 yards on 53 carries.
Woodson also has some prettygood skills when it comes to
throwing the ball.
Last year, against Charlotte,he had a 69-yard touchdown pass
against the Heidenreich and hemade that throw look pretty easy
.
The key thing with him as hecontinues to develop and learn
(07:32):
his offense is his decisionmaking.
It's probably fair to say thathe's got more experience in
Horvath when it comes to makingthe necessary throws, but Coach
Jasper has been working with himon knowing when to pull the
ball down and use his legs Withthe kind of speed he has, there
aren't many defenders who aregoing to be able to chase him
down in the open field.
So those are the twoquarterbacks competing to lead
the Navy offense in the fall.
It's the third system the Midswill be using in the past three
(07:55):
years and, by all accounts, theplayers are pretty excited to
run it.
There hasn't been a ton ofnoise coming out of spring
practice, though, based on thepress conferences that I've
listened to, that's probably bydesign.
We can talk all we want aboutit, but I think the priority is
making sure that the playerscontinue to get this system
tattooed in their brains so thatthey are ready to go when the
season opener gets here.
All right, there is your lookat where Navy football stands
(08:18):
going into the fall.
We're just getting started,though, because coming up next,
we'll be counting down our top10 most memorable moments of the
Navy sports season.
(08:41):
After the sports season comes toa close, it's always fun for me
to see if I can come up with atop 10 list that features the
most memorable moments for thatyear.
What makes it even morechallenging is the number of
sports that need to beconsidered, and as far as where
they rank in the top 10, thatall comes down to the criteria I
came up with, which, I admit,is very subjective.
So here we go.
First, what was the emotionalimpact of that moment?
In other words, how did theresult cause me to react?
(09:06):
Or, as I like to say, to whatextent did it peg the meter?
Second, how significant was themoment?
In other words, did it occurduring the regular season?
Was there a league title on theline?
Were the mids going againstArmy?
If that moment occurred in anyone of those three scenarios,
there's a pretty good chance itwas considered.
And finally, third, was a newschool record set?
It's tough enough competing inany sport at the academy, so
when a team or individualathlete sets a school record,
that needs to be looked at.
(09:26):
Okay, so now you know what mythought process was.
Let's go ahead and get started.
But before I get to number 10, Idid want to kick things off
with an honorable mention, andit goes to the Navy Rowing
Program.
This event actually occurredafter last year's sports season
ended and before this year'sbegan, but it definitely
deserves a spotlight becausethree Navy rowers were crowned
as world champions.
That's right.
I said world champions, notnational champions.
This all happened last July atthe Under-23 World Rowing
(09:49):
Championships in Plovdiv,Bulgaria.
Mason Banks and Jackson Fullerwere invited to try out for the
national team and they wereselected to represent the United
States in the lightweight pairsevent.
Meanwhile, Lauren Day wasselected as a member of the
women's eight crew.
Banks and Fuller rode anoutstanding championship race.
They were less than a second infront of Italy at the 500 meter
mark, but by 1,000 metersthey'd opened up a three and a
half second lead.
(10:09):
And that was as close as theItalians got the rest of the way
, as Banks and Fuller finishedthe 2,000 meter course in 6
minutes 36.37 seconds, which wasnearly four seconds ahead of
the second place Italians.
Now moving over to the Women's 8championship race.
It was almost an identicalresult.
Lauren Day was in the secondseat and she helped keep the
team stroke for stroke withGermany in the opening 500.
From there, the US Shell founda second gear and they opened up
(10:30):
a two-second lead at thehalfway point.
They ended up winning the racewith a time of 6 minutes 9.14
seconds, which was over fourseconds better than the German
team.
So there you go Mason Banks,jackson Fuller and Lauren Day
became the latest worldchampions from the Naval Academy
in rowing, and it really doestell you what kind of quality
program that coaching staff hasput together at Hubbard Hall.
Now, for those of you who maynot know it, rowing is one of
(10:52):
the more internationalcollegiate sports around.
If you look at the rosters fromsome of the top programs, the
majority of the athletes in anumber one boat comes from
either Europe or some othercountry where rowing is huge Let
me give you an example or someother country where rowing is
huge.
Let me give you an example.
Earlier this month at the IRAChampionships, harvard took home
the lightweight title and Itook a look at the crew of their
number one boat.
There were three rowers fromthe UK, one each from New
Zealand, south Africa and Canadaand only two were from the
(11:15):
United States, and actuallythree if you count the coxswain.
On the women's side, theUniversity of Texas won the D1
Championship.
They actually did a little bitbetter with four rowers and the
coxswain coming from the US, butthey still had two from the UK
and one each from Denmark andthe Netherlands, and on the
heavyweight side, you see iteven more the University of
Washington's 1 V8 boat thatended up winning the title had
(11:35):
three rowers and the coxswainfrom the UK, two from Norway and
one each from Italy, newZealand and the United States.
Now I put all that out there tosay that the athletes who row
for the Naval Academy face toughinternational competition every
time they get into a shellduring the season.
So it is really cool to see theMids winning championships when
they take on these eliteathletes on the world stage.
All right, it is always greatto show some love to the Navy
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rowing program.
So now let's go ahead and jumpinto our countdown.
Coming in at number 10, navySprint Football pulls off the
three-peat.
These guys made the countdownlast year after going undefeated
and winning their secondconsecutive college sprint
football championship.
This season proved to be alittle bit more challenging.
They did win their first twogames but then lost to Army 10-3
up at West Point, and theoffense, which had scored 72
(12:20):
points in those first couple ofcontests, just couldn't get
anything going.
But the Mids did manage to turnthings around from there.
They outscored their next fouropponents by an average of 44-10
.
And just pretty much like everyother year, they went up
against Army in the championshipgame, but this time things were
a lot different.
The Mids tied the score at 7when the defense returned a
block punt for a touchdown andthen quarterback Brandon Atwood
connected on a couple of scoringpasses to Hunter Gennicks and
(12:42):
Kai Sasaki to take a 21-10 lead.
That was stretched to 28-10after a one-yard run by Devyn
Martin early in the fourthquarter.
The Black Knights did come upwith a couple of touchdowns to
make the score 28-23, but theNavy offense got the ball back
with 7.48 to go in the game andran out the clock to seal the
win and the championship.
It's tough enough to win onetitle, no matter what sport
you're talking about.
So pulling off a three-peat ispretty amazing, and that's the
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reason the sprint football teamlanded at number 10 in our
countdown, moving on to numbernine.
We've got the Navy women'striathlon team qualifying for
nationals in their first year asa varsity program.
Now it was about a year agothat the Navy women's triathlon
team was elevated from club tovarsity status.
Actually, the club team wasco-ed, but triathlon is an
emerging sport on the women'sside, so that was one of the
reasons this move was made.
(13:24):
I had a chance to interviewCoach Billy Edwards, from the
class of 2001, before the seasonstarted.
His team of seven womenfinished second in their very
first event and then they wenton to pick up a fifth and sixth
place finish in their next twobefore winning the Waterman
Sprint Triathlon just before theregional qualifier.
They came in sixth out of 20teams in that event and that was
good enough to get them tonationals, which took place out
here in Tempe, arizona.
(13:45):
The mids pre-race seating was12th and they ended up finishing
11th overall out of 31 teams.
Haley Harris was the mids topfinisher, coming in 36th out of
the 211 athletes who competed.
I actually had a chance tointerview the entire team the
day before the Nationals back inNovember.
It was a really goodconversation and I tell you what
.
I'm going to go ahead andinclude a link to it in the show
notes in case you want to checkit out.
I'm also going to see if I canget Coach Edwards back on the
(14:07):
show before the season starts.
He was a lot of fun to speakwith and I know he's got big
plans for the team, given thesuccess he's had in the past.
So congratulations to to thewomen's triathlon team on a
terrific first season, whichearned them the number nine spot
on our list.
Up next at number eight, navyGymnastics wins their sixth
straight ECAC championship,sending four team members to
(14:29):
nationals.
This Navy Gymnastics program hasquietly become one of the best
on the East Coast.
Years ago, in the starcompetition, this was
practically an automatic W forArmy, but it's a much different
story now.
The mids are 14 and four overthe last 18 years, and their
current winning streak stands at7.
At the ECAC Championships, theteam came up with some of their
best performances and put up aseason-high 401.45 points.
Isaiah Drake took theall-around title, while his
classmate Riley Rose won thegold medal in the rings and the
(14:51):
high bar, and then sophomoreMatthew Petros picked up the
mids' third individual title onthe parallel bars.
Drake and Petros went on tocompete at Nationals and they
were joined by sophomores DaniloVicciana on the high bar and
Colby Prince in the floorexercise.
Coach Kip Simons has done afantastic job since he came to
Navy 10 years ago.
He continues to recruit topgymnasts and he's sent at least
one to Nationals in each season.
(15:12):
The only exception was 2020,when the championships were
canceled due to the COVIDpandemic.
This program has been soconsistent over the years and
they get that number eight spotin our countdown because of
their strong showing this year.
That included that sixthstraight ECAC championship.
So great job to Coach Simonsand the entire Navy gymnastics
team.
That brings us to number seven.
Navy defeats North Texas 27-24for their second win of the year
(15:34):
.
Now, on its face, there wasnothing all that remarkable
about this game.
The Mids came into it with a1-3 record, while North Texas
was 2-2.
But the most noteworthy pieceof news heading into this game
was that the coaching staff haddecided to sit Ty Lavitae and
start Blake Horvath against theMean Green.
Obviously that's not what thesenior quarterback wanted to
hear, but he reacted like a trueprofessional and he did his
part to help Horvath prepare forthe game.
(15:56):
The Mids punted on their firsttwo possessions so they didn't
get off to a really quick startand they were down 3-0 in the
second quarter.
Then Alex Tex had broke throughfor a 39-yard touchdown run,
giving them the lead.
After a couple more changes ofpossession, north Texas retook
the lead 10-7, with just underthree minutes to go in the half.
(16:17):
Following the kickoff, horvathwent to the sidelines and that's
when the coaching staff hadfound out he had suffered an
injury to his thumb and hewasn't coming back.
So now in comes Ty Lavitae.
After an incomplete pass hepicked up 20 yards on a third
and eight by exploding throughthe right side of the line and
making a really nice cut toavoid a tackle.
And on the very next play hethrows an absolutely perfect,
high-arching touch pass to theright side of the end zone,
(16:39):
hitting Nathan Kent for thetouchdown, just inside the
sideline.
I mean, the only way Lavitaecould have delivered the ball
any better would have been if hehad run over to Kent and placed
the ball in his hands himself.
The Mids now had a 14-10 leadgoing into the locker room With
Lavitae at the controls.
The rest of the way the offensetacked on a field goal and
another touchdown.
After a big 38-yard completiontook the ball to the North Texas
(16:59):
one-yard line.
Anton Hall punched it in fromthere.
One more field goal made thescore 27-17, and although North
Texas did add one more touchdown, the Mids defense held on down
the stretch and they won thegame 27-24.
Lavati's attitude going intothis contest and then his
performance when his number wascalled tells you everything you
need to know about him.
This guy is a real pro.
It was one of those feel-goodmoments, and the entire coaching
(17:21):
staff could not say enoughabout how well he handled the
situation.
Though the season ended indisappointing fashion, that game
against North Texas was a highpoint for Lavitae, and it was
his professionalism andtoughness in leading the Navy
football team that got him tonumber seven in our top 10.
Now, at number six, we havewhat I think is another really
cool story, and for that we'regoing to look at the Navy
women's basketball team.
(17:42):
For them, the 2022-23 season wasjust plain miserable.
Jennifer Coleman, who wasarguably one of the best to ever
put on a Navy jersey, hadgraduated.
The returning team definitelyhad some raw talent and they
certainly weren't short oneffort, but this particular
group didn't have the same kindof game experience in what was a
very competitive Patriot League, and because of that, the Mids
(18:02):
endured one really tough year.
They wound up winning just oneconference game against 17
losses.
In fact, that win was the onlyone they had all season, but
while this young team was takingtheir lumps, they were also
getting a lot of big-time gameexperience that would start
paying off the next season.
Coach Tim Taylor also brought inan excellent group of recruits
for the class of 2027, and twoof them had an immediate impact.
Both Zanai Barnett-Gay and KyahSmith quickly stepped in to
(18:25):
give the mids a solid backcourttandem.
Barnett-gay led the team inboth scoring and rebounding,
averaging 18.2 points per gameand 6.2 rebounds.
Smith was second in scoringwith 12.1 points per game, and
she was first in assists.
The team finished strong,winning seven of their last 10
games to wind up just one gameout of second place in the
conference.
They qualified for the PatriotLeague tournament and beat
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Lafayette in the first roundbefore losing a tight one to
number two-seeded Colgate 69-64.
The Mids actually led that gameat halftime, but just couldn't
hang on.
When you look at it, though, itwas still a remarkable
turnaround to the season.
The team went from a 1-17record in league play to 9-9
with a tournament win, and theydid it with a young team that
continues to gain moreexperience.
This year's edition of the Navywomen's basketball team won't
(19:07):
have any seniors at all, but thesophomores and juniors that
they have taking the court areall well-tested, and if Coach
Taylor's group of incomingfreshmen are even close to the
level of talent that ZanaiBarnett-Gay and Kyah Smith have,
the Mid's should improve on aterrific bounce back season that
pushed them to number six inthis year's countdown of the 10
most memorable moments in Navyathletics.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
(19:29):
to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
(19:49):
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
We are halfway through ourcountdown of the top 10 most
(20:22):
memorable moments of the Navysports season.
I'm curious to know how my listcompares to yours.
So after we finish up, send mea text using the link on the
page to let me know what youthink.
Okay, let's go ahead andcontinue with number five on our
countdown.
Navy men's lacrosse defeatsnumber eight-ranked Johns
Hopkins on the road.
In overtime.
The Navy men's lacrosse teamhad what can best be described
(20:43):
as an uneven year this pastspring.
At times they gave opposingteams fits, and then there were
other times when the consistencyjust wasn't there, and there
was one game in particular whenwe saw both versions of that
team.
But, lucky for the mids, theyshowed the Blue Jays just how
well they were capable ofplaying when it counted the most
.
As I mentioned, hopkins wasranked 8th in the country and
Navy traveled up to Baltimore toplay them on March 15th.
(21:05):
Two years ago, Max Hewitt, whowas then a sophomore, scored two
goals in less than a minute atcrunch time to give the mids the
win.
It was their first at HomewoodField since 1969.
Now he was back to try and havea similar impact.
But things got ugly really fastfor the Mids.
The Blue Jays scored six timesin the opening quarter to take a
four-goal lead into the second.
Everything was going their way,while Navy just couldn't seem
(21:26):
to do much of anything right.
That's when the entire flow ofthe game changed.
The Mids held Hopkins scorelessin the second quarter, while
coming up with three more goalsto make the score 6-5.
Dane Swanson scored two of themand Henry Tolker got the other
one off an assist from Hewitt,so starting the second half.
Navy found itself back in thegame and now the fight was on.
Swanson's third goal, and thenanother by Tolker, gave the Mids
(21:48):
a 9-7 lead going into thefourth quarter.
And after that, sixth goaloutburst by the Blue Jays to
start the game.
The Navy defense really put theclamps on them.
Put the clamps on them, onlyallowing one goal in 32 minutes
of playing time.
Hopkins didn't go quietly,though they were not interested
in losing to the mids a secondstraight time at home.
Their offense finally got goingagain and they scored twice in
the fourth quarter to square thegame at 9.
Neither team managed to breakthe tie in the last two minutes,
(22:10):
so it was time for some freelacrosse as the game went into
overtime.
The Mids won the criticalfaceoff.
To get things started, thanksto freshman Zach Hayashi, they
worked the ball around beforeXavier Arline took a shot that
went slightly wide.
It was backed up, though, andseconds later Swanson found
Hewitt at the top of the box onthe right side.
After getting past his defender, the senior from Denver,
colorado attacked the cage andcut to his left just outside the
(22:31):
top of the crease.
He would doze to his left andgot off his shot while staying
clear of the crease and hadfound the back of the net just
as he hit the ground.
After a quick review, the goalwas confirmed and the Mids had
another win against a top 10ranked opponent.
Those last three quarters thatthey played against the Blue
Jays were among the best thatthe Navy men's lacrosse team had
played all year, and the factthat they reached that level
while playing such ahigh-powered Johns Hopkins team
(22:52):
got them to number five on ourlist In the number four spot,
just ahead of the men, we've gotthe women's lacrosse team
defeats Army to clinch the StarSeries.
This was one top ten moment Iactually witnessed personally.
My wife and I made the trip outto Annapolis in April, and I
(23:12):
picked that specific weekendbecause I'd never seen the women
play other than on ESPN Plus orthe CBS Sports Network.
There was a lot at stake.
Also, the Mids had lost thelast two star games to Army, so
they needed to get that trendgoing in the other direction.
Even more importantly, a winhere would clinch the star
series for the year.
And this was after the Midsfell behind 6-1 in the fall.
The game was physical right fromthe very start.
After trailing early 3-2, theNavy offense reeled off four
straight goals to take a 6-3lead.
(23:33):
The Black Knights got one backbefore the first quarter ended,
but the Mids defense reallyclamped down in the second,
giving up just two scores.
Meanwhile, the offense led byEmily Messonese and Tori DiCarlo
came up with five goals to takean 11-6 lead.
Into the locker room.
The one player who reallyhelped the Mids dictate the pace
of the game was Alyssa Daly,she's Navy's draw control
(23:54):
specialist.
The mids won that battle 26-5,and Daly had 17 of them on her
own.
That was just one short of therecord held by Reagan Roloffs.
The two teams scored four timeseach in the third quarter.
So the mids held on to theirfive-goal lead at 15-10, and
from there it was all over.
But the shouting.
Mikayla Williams picked up herthird goal goal and Lola Leone
closed out the scoring.
In the fourth quarter, the Midscame away with an emotional
(24:15):
17-11 win.
Not only did it snap thattwo-game losing streak in the
star competition, but it alsoclinched the ninth consecutive
star series for Navy, and that'sdefinitely worth a number four
ranking on our list.
Okay, now we're up to numberthree.
The women's tennis team winstheir first Patriot League title
.
There are a total of 12 women'ssports at the Naval Academy,
(24:35):
not including the three co-edprograms, which are rifle,
offshore sailing and collegiatesailing.
Ten of those 12 teams are inthe Patriot League and going
into the 2023-24 sports season,each of them could list a
Patriot League championshipamong their accomplishments,
except for one.
The women's tennis team becamea varsity program in the
2009-2010 season under coachKeith Puryear, and through his
(24:58):
first 15 years he'd compiled anoutstanding 51-13 record in
conference play and an overallrecord of 194-43.
The only thing missing was aPatriot League championship.
The mids had made it to thetitle match seven times under
coach Puryear, but were deniedby either Boston University or
Army, two of the strongestprograms in the league.
This year, the team wasdefinitely on a mission.
Led by Emily Tannenbaum andKate Lee, they put together a
(25:22):
terrific 18-5 record going intotheir star match against Army.
They defeated the Black Knights4-2, but then lost to Boston
University by the same score thefollowing week.
Even so, they had a good enoughseason to earn them the number
two seat in the tournament,after taking care of Bucknell.
In the quarterfinals the midshad to face Army again, with a
trip to the championship on theline.
(25:42):
It was a back-and-forth contestthat all came down to the
number six singles match betweenNavy's Parvati Shankar and
Paige Harriman from Army.
They split their first two sets, but then Shankar found herself
down 4-1 in the third.
She managed to battle back tosquare the match at four apiece,
but two games later she wasbehind again 5-4, facing match
point, and things did not lookgood.
Shanker fought off that matchpoint and then took that game as
well as the next two, to closeout the match 7-5.
(26:03):
The mids were on their way totheir eighth Patriot League
final no-transcript.
That meant Sia Chowdhury andKay Lee had to win their matches
(26:24):
, otherwise the team was lookingat another runner-up finish.
Chowdhury dropped her first set, 6-love, but then she found her
rhythm, taking the final twosets 6-3 and 6-2.
Now all eyes were on the numberfour singles match, where Li
and her opponent, emily Zhao,were deadlocked at a set apiece
and headed to a third settiebreaker.
Zhao took a commanding 5-1 leadbefore Li won three straight
points to close the 5-4.
(26:45):
The only problem was that Liwas going to be on the receiving
end of the next two points andZhao was serving pretty well.
Li lost that first point andnow, with the score 6-4, in the
tiebreaker she was looking attwo championship points against
her.
If she lost either one, it wasall over.
What happened next wasunbelievable.
Li took the next point to getback on serve at 6-5, then she
(27:05):
won both of her server's pointsto take a 7-6 lead.
Now it was her opponent who wasserving to stay in the match.
Zhao eventually sent a forehandlong on that point and after
over two and a half longgrueling hours, the match was
finally over and it ended inabsolutely stunning fashion.
And, by the way, navy Athleticshas a great highlight video on
this title match.
I'll put a link to it in theshow notes and I'm telling you
it's definitely a must-see.
(27:26):
There are few things moregratifying than seeing the pure
joy that athletes experiencewhen they win their first league
championship.
The entire team just mobbedKate Lee after that last point
and then to watch the reactionof Coach Puryear and his staff.
That was just priceless.
So the Navy women's tennis teamfinally won that elusive first
Patriot League championship bybeating the two programs that
previously had their number onconsecutive days, and that's
(27:49):
what earned them the numberthree position in our top 10.
All right, here we go withnumber two.
Navy Men's Track sends fourathletes to the NCAA
Championships.
Last year I heard an interviewwith Navy Javelin thrower Braden
Presser.
This was right after his sixthplace finish in the event, which
earned him First TeamAll-America honors.
One of the things Presser saidwas that he was looking forward
(28:10):
to getting back to thechampionships next year and
having some of his teammatesjoin him.
This spring, three more membersof the men's track team made the
trip with Presser to Nationals,which took place in Eugene,
oregon.
They were Josh Boma in the shotput and hammer throw, ramir
Vick in 110 meter hurdles andNathan Kent in the 400 meters.
Both Kent and Vick made it tothe semifinals.
In fact, both of them recordedthe third fastest times in
(28:30):
school history in their tworespective races.
All four athletes were named tothe All-America team.
The last time this many men hadqualified for nationals was
back in 1947.
And you know, something tellsme this could become a regular
occurrence.
Kent still has two years leftat Navy and he's got all kinds
of potential.
Had he run his time of 48.85 inthat third semifinal heat
(28:51):
instead of the first one that hewas in, he would have made the
final.
Based on the qualifying criteria, the performances of Braden,
presser, josh Boma, ramir Vickand Nathan Kent capped off an
amazing year for the men's trackteam.
All four of them were invitedto compete in the Olympic trials
, and that's where Nathan Kentlowered his school record twice
in the 400 meters, while againmaking it to the semifinals.
I am a little bit fuzzy on howthat works, though, as it
(29:13):
relates to a school record,since the Olympic trials weren't
really an NCAA event.
It doesn't really matter,though.
Presser, boma, vick and Kentmade history on the strength of
their performances all year long, and their accomplishments as a
group made it the second mostmemorable moment of this Navy
sports season.
And that brings us to the mostmemorable moment.
But let me go ahead and do aquick recap of numbers 10
through 2.
(29:33):
First At number 10, navy SprintFootball pulls off the
championship.
Three-peat Number 9, the NavyWomen's Triathlon Team qualifies
for nationals in its firstyears of varsity program.
Number 8, navy Gymnastics winstheir sixth consecutive ECAC
championship, sending four teammembers to nationals.
Number 7, navy defeats NorthTexas 27-24.
(29:54):
Number six Navy women'sbasketball has a strong
bounce-back season.
Number five men's lacrossedefeats eighth-ranked Johns
Hopkins on the road in overtime.
Number four women's lacrossebeats Army to clinch the star
series.
Number three the women's tennisteam wins its first Patriot
League title.
And at number two, the Navymen's track team sends four
(30:15):
athletes to the NCAAchampionships.
And finally, we come to the mostmemorable moment of this year's
sports season, and for this oneyou had to go all the way back
to the fall, to November in factand it took the top spot
because it was packed with thekind of drama and emotion that
make college sports so much funto watch.
And, of course, it didn't hurtthat the opponent happened to be
Army in this case either.
So I've kept you waiting longenough.
(30:37):
At number one in our countdownof the 10 most memorable moments
in Navy sports this year, thewomen's volleyball team comes
from behind to beat Army to takeits first star since 2018.
Now, I don't want to give youthe impression that the mids
weren't having any success atall against the Black Knights
since Coach Paco Labrador tookover that same year.
The fact is, his teams havebeaten Army at least once each
(30:58):
season, but most of those winsdid not come in a star match.
These two teams face each othertwice a year and potentially a
third time in the playoffs, andevery time the Navy won it was
in either the non-star match orin the Patriot League tournament
In 2023, the mids dropped theirfirst contest against the Black
Knights up at West Point threesets to one.
Navy was coming off a toughfive-set road loss to Lehigh the
(31:21):
night before and had to dealwith a pretty fresh Army squad,
and unfortunately they could notstop Army's outside hitters,
who went on to have a veryefficient match.
The mids dropped the first twosets before winning the third
one, but they just couldn'textend the match beyond that,
losing the fourth set 25-22.
Luckily, the star match wouldbe played five weeks later in
Annapolis, so there was still anopportunity to get a split for
the year in a game that had justa little bit more riding on it.
(31:43):
At first, the match looked justlike a continuation of the last
one.
The Black Knights won the firsttwo sets pretty easily 25-16
and 25-18.
They were very aggressive onoffense, registering 13 kills in
the first game and 18 in thesecond, compared to just 7 and
11 for Navy.
But thanks to the Llewellynsisters, jamie and Jordan, the
Mids began to find their footing.
They had 16 kills in the thirdset to take it by a score of
(32:05):
25-20.
The fourth set saw Navy fallbehind 15-10 before they battled
back to tie things up at 16.
They kept the pressure on byforcing Army into some critical
attack errors, resulting inanother 25-20 win.
The deciding fifth set was areal fight.
I watched it on ESPN+ and theone thing I can tell you is that
the Wesley A Brown field housewas absolutely packed.
(32:25):
Navy football fans had justwatched the Mids beat Alabama
Birmingham 31-6, and a bunch ofthem came over to support the
volleyball team.
The crowd noise wasunbelievable.
Every single point was criticaland initially the mids seemed
to feed off that support.
They had leads of 5-1 and 11-5before the Black Knights ran off
six in a row to tie the scoreat 11.
Now, just as a reminder, thefifth set in college volleyball
(32:48):
just goes to 15, not 25.
So again, every point matters,navy won three out of the next
four to get to 14-12 in matchpoint.
Now the stage was set for anamazing finish.
Freshman Arlie Hansen got aclean serve in play.
Army's kill attempt was dug out.
They set things up for JamieLlewellyn but her try was turned
away.
Going back to the Navy side,the ball went right to sophomore
(33:10):
Laney Ferry, who executed justabout as perfect a bump pass as
you could make under pressure toHansen, who was one of the
mid's main setters.
The other one is Avery Miller,a senior with over 2,700 assists
to her credit.
Miller's also six feet tall andshe is a legitimate offensive
threat.
In this particular sequence.
Miller was set up as an outsidehitter on the right and Larson
could set it to Jamie Llewellyn,who was in front of her on the
(33:32):
left, or put up a back set toMiller.
She decided to go with the backset and Miller absolutely
hammered it home.
Point, game set and match.
The Mids had completed anunbelievable comeback and the
entire field house just wentabsolutely berserk.
It was an incredibly drainingand emotional win.
Coach Labrador made it a pointto mention how important the
(33:52):
crowd support was, especiallyover those last three sets.
I'm going to put a link tothese match highlights in the
show notes as well.
You just have to check them out.
This volleyball match had it all.
There was the adversity thatthe team had to deal with in
falling behind two sets to none,and then they had to manage
their emotions and the momentumchanges as they fought their way
back.
Finally, the composure theydisplayed in that
(34:13):
pressure-packed fifth set wasjust unreal, and it's for all of
those reasons that the women'svolleyball team stands at number
one on our list of the mostmemorable moments in Navy sports
this year.
All right, that does it forthis year's countdown.
Be sure to let me know what youthink.
Were there any sports momentsthat got your attention?
If so, send me a short text andlet me know.
I'll be sure to share it in ournext episode.
(34:35):
Thanks for hanging in therewith me up to this point.
All we've got left is ourquestion of the day, so stick
around.
All right, it is time to wrapthings up with our question of
(35:02):
the day, as we always do.
Let's go ahead and check theresponses to the question from
our last episode, and it wentlike this brady impressor was
just named an all-american inoutdoor track and field in the
javelin for the third straightyear.
When was the last time someonefrom the men's track team earned
this distinction of qualifyingas an All-American for three
consecutive seasons in hisrespective event?
Was it A 1947, b 1976, c 1983,or D 2012?
(35:25):
So, basically, here's how theresponses broke down.
The most popular one was C 1983.
There were 85% of those whoresponded that gave that answer.
Next was 1947, which you recall, was the last time the Mids had
four athletes qualify for theNCAA championships.
14% of you went with that one.
Then the next answer was B 1976.
(35:47):
There were 1% of you who gavethat answer, and no one selected
D, which was 2012.
So it turns out the rightanswer was C 1983.
And I remember this wellbecause, of course, that was
when I was at the academy and Iwas just finishing up my junior
year.
But the guy that everybody hadtheir eyes on that year was Leo
Williams.
He was a Navy high jumper andhe was from the class of 83, and
(36:09):
he was something else.
Williams won the NCAA OutdoorChampionship in the high jump in
1981, to go along with twoindoor championships in 1981 and
1982.
His winning jump outdoors in1981 was 2.25 meters, which
converts to 7 feet 4.5 inches.
Williams was named anAll-American in 1981, 82, and 83
.
He also won a silver medal atthe 1983 Pan Am Games and was an
(36:30):
alternate on the 84 Olympicteam after finishing fourth at
the Olympic trials.
So it's pretty clear that LeoWilliams was one of the most
decorated track athletes to everpass through Annapolis, and
congratulations to all of youwho came up with that answer.
Now here's this week's question.
You heard me say earlier thatat the time of the Army-Navy
volleyball star match, averyMiller had a total of 2,700
(36:51):
career assists.
At the time of the Army-Navyvolleyball star match, avery
Miller had a total of 2,700career assists.
She ended up finishing with2,748.
Where does this rank herall-time among Navy volleyball
players?
Is it A first, b, second, c,third or D fourth?
Think about that one and let meknow what you came up with.
If you feel like answering rightnow, you can send me a text.
(37:11):
This is assuming you're notdriving, or anything like that.
You can also go to the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page and give me your answerthere.
I'll look forward to gettingyour replies.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all.
So much for joining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
(37:32):
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(37:55):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody,until next time.
This is karl Darden Go.
Navy! Beat Army!
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today.
On Navy Sports Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation, where we take adeeper dive into Navy sports.
To the official podcast of theNavy Sports Nation, where we
take a deeper dive into Navysports.
The sports season is now over,so I figured this would be a
good time to take a look back atsome of the most memorable
moments of the year in Navyathletics.
You can play along by checkinghow many matched up with yours
(00:34):
and then letting me know bysending a text.
And we haven't really talkedabout where the Navy football
team stood coming out of springpractices, so I do want to take
some time to share a fewthoughts on how the mids are
looking there.
Obviously, there's bound to besome questions, so I'll do what
I can to answer them, and thenwe'll go ahead and wrap things
up with our question of the day.
Things are pretty quiet in theyard, but there's still a lot to
talk about, so please don't goanywhere.
Okay, summer is here once againin the desert, which basically
(01:06):
means we are looking at tripledigit high temperatures for at
least the next two and a half,if not three, months.
That doesn't seem to be anissue with a lot of people,
though, because I just readwhere 111,000 people just moved
to Phoenix last year.
Anyway, whether you live hereor not, or whether you are a
regular or first time listener,thanks for taking the time.
So, as I said in the opening,we're going to take a look at
the top 10 moments of the2023-24 Navy sports season.
(01:29):
Before we start that countdown,though, I wanted to get you all
caught up on how things arelooking with the Navy football
team after the spring practiceis wrapped up.
I'm not going to go throughevery position on the depth
chart on this show.
We'll save that for a couple ofweeks before the season starts.
So today, I will give you athumbnail sketch of what the
defense will look like, and I'lldo my best to explain what you
can expect from Coach DrewCronick's hybrid wing tee
offense.
(01:49):
And finally, I also wanted togive you all an idea of how the
only two quarterbacks listed onthe roster did in the spring,
according to the coaches.
Of course, there'll be a couplemore quarterbacks joining the
team with the incoming class of2028, but we don't know who they
are yet, and even if we did,it's not likely that they'll be
under center on opening day.
Okay, first let's begin with thedefense, and I think the
(02:09):
logical place to start is thetransfer portal.
Was the defense significantlyimpacted by anyone who left?
Now, most everyone who followsthe team knows about Jake
Busic's situation.
He is at UCLA now after anappeal to use his last year of
eligibility at Navy was denied.
The only other notable playeron the defense who entered the
transfer portal was cornerbackElias Larry.
(02:30):
Now, he did figure in the midsdefense quite a bit during his
sophomore year and he did playin seven games last year.
I don't know if he was hurt toomuch or not, but the fact is he
didn't have the same kind ofnumbers his junior years.
He did his previous one and Iwas a little bit surprised that
he did enter the portal myself,but he ended up landing at
Colorado State.
So on balance, I don't thinkthe team was hurt too badly by
(02:52):
the portal.
I have to admit that it wouldhave been nice to have Jake
Busic on that defensive linethough.
Anyway, the defense undersecond year coordinator PJ
Volker is looking like it'sgoing to be every bit as tough
this year.
Coach Volker and his positioncoaches have done a great job
developing their players,starting with the defensive line
and continuing with thelinebackers all the way through
to the secondary, so I think youcan expect to see the same kind
(03:14):
of disruption that resulted inthree shutouts last year, which,
by the way, was among the bestin Division I football.
Moving over to the offense, I'velearned a little bit about
Coach Cronic's hybrid ring teethat I can share with you now.
Here are a couple of key pointsthat I've picked up.
Similar to the triple option,the hybrid ring tee is easy to
adapt to a team's personnel.
It employs a lot of angleblocking schemes, which does
(03:36):
tend to level the playing field,because undersized players can
still be effective against abigger opponent.
Lining up on defense.
The other thing about theoffense is its flexibility.
You can run lots of plays outof the same formation.
Now, with the triple option,you had basically the same
situation, but I think there areeven more choices available out
of a straightforward wing teesetup.
The main goal is to createconflicts for the defense by
(03:58):
overloading individual defenderswith choices and then forcing
them to make a decision and then, if the quarterback makes the
right read, it should be a goodresult.
This offense makes attackingthe flanks a priority.
All four backs those being thequarterback fullback and both
snipes, which is the new termthat we're gonna be using for
the slot backs they will all beactively involved on every play
and that'll be either carryingthe ball, blocking or executing
(04:19):
some sort of deceptive fake.
There will be opportunities forthe quarterback to throw the
ball as well, whether he startsfrom under center or from the
pistol, using some sort ofrun-pass option alignment.
Now, a minute ago I mentionedrunning multiple plays out of
the same basic formation.
I saw one video on YouTubewhere the offense ran a jet
sweep in either direction toattack the perimeter.
So that gives you two playsright there, and if the defense
(04:40):
gets really aggressive, the jetsweep counter uses a double
handoff and executes a reverseto try and catch the defense
over pursuing.
That's two more plays.
So now we're looking at four.
There are also two pass playsand an internal trap that can be
run out of the same alignment.
That makes a total of sevenplays.
So you can see you've got a lotof different places you can go
there, and that's just out ofone formation that I've named.
There's a bunch of others.
The hybrid ring tee has alsobeen adapted to run out of the
(05:02):
shotgun or the pistol formation,and that provides for more
opportunities for a lot of runpass option plays, and I'm
pretty fired up about thatbecause the Navy offense has
good speed on the perimeter.
So I'm looking forward to thereceivers, the snipes and maybe
even the tight ends gettingtheir hands on the ball a little
bit more often.
That brings us to the biggestquestion, which is who's going
to be the quarterback that leadsthis offense Right now?
There are only two choices andthat leads this offense right
(05:23):
now.
There are only two choices, andthey're both pretty good ones
for different reasons.
The first is Blake Horvath.
He is a junior from Hilliard,Ohio who checks in at 6'2 and
195 pounds, and he appeared infour games last year.
In fact he started one of thembefore having to leave with a
broken thumb and unfortunatelythat injury sidelined him for
the rest of the season.
But the one thing I did noticewhen Horvath was playing was
that he was pretty comfortablerunning the system that the
(05:44):
offense used last year.
He made some good reads andhe's got the speed and quickness
to break off some big gains.
According to quarterbacks coachIvan Jasper, the biggest area
Horvath needs to improve upon isconsistently transferring his
play and practice to what hedoes on game day.
So we're not going to have thefinal verdict on that until the
season starts.
The one area of developmentwhere Horvath has taken a big
jump forward, based on thecoaching staff's comments, is
(06:05):
his passing ability.
He came from an option offensein high school so he didn't
throw the ball all that much,and last year he only attempted
12 passes, completing six ofthem for 84 yards.
One of those completionshappened to be a 68-yard
touchdown pass to EliHeidenreich against South
Florida, and it was a legit deepthrow too.
So he does have the armstrength.
What has really improved duringthe offseason is Horvath's
(06:26):
accuracy and his consistencymaking the different throws that
will need to be made in thisoffense.
The really good news is thatHorvath is back at 100%
following his thumb injury, andhe showed no ill effects from
that because he did a great jobin spring practice, which earned
him the number one spot goinginto the fall.
The other guy competing for thejob at quarterback is sophomore
Braxton Woodson.
He's listed at 6'3", 215 pounds, and is from Altamonte Springs,
(06:47):
florida, which is just north ofOrlando.
Now, the first thing thatcaught my attention was his
weight.
Last year he was right around200 pounds, so he's definitely
added some bulk, and that'sgoing to be a factor when he
runs the ball, because it'sgoing to make him even tougher
to bring down once he gets up afull head of steam.
Woodson also saw the field fourtimes in 2023, starting once
which I think was against AirForce.
(07:09):
He entered the SMU game afterXavier Arland had to leave due
to an injury and in the secondquarter he broke off a 69-yard
touchdown run, showing off somepretty impressive straight-line
speed.
He ended up finishing the yearwith 242 yards on 53 carries.
Woodson also has some prettygood skills when it comes to
throwing the ball.
Last year, against Charlotte,he had a 69-yard touchdown pass
against the Heidenreich and hemade that throw look pretty easy
.
The key thing with him as hecontinues to develop and learn
(07:32):
his offense is his decisionmaking.
It's probably fair to say thathe's got more experience in
Horvath when it comes to makingthe necessary throws, but Coach
Jasper has been working with himon knowing when to pull the
ball down and use his legs Withthe kind of speed he has, there
aren't many defenders who aregoing to be able to chase him
down in the open field.
So those are the twoquarterbacks competing to lead
the Navy offense in the fall.
It's the third system the Midswill be using in the past three
(07:55):
years and, by all accounts, theplayers are pretty excited to
run it.
There hasn't been a ton ofnoise coming out of spring
practice, though, based on thepress conferences that I've
listened to, that's probably bydesign.
We can talk all we want aboutit, but I think the priority is
making sure that the playerscontinue to get this system
tattooed in their brains so thatthey are ready to go when the
season opener gets here.
All right, there is your lookat where Navy football stands
(08:18):
going into the fall.
We're just getting started,though, because coming up next,
we'll be counting down our top10 most memorable moments of the
Navy sports season.
(08:41):
After the sports season comes toa close, it's always fun for me
to see if I can come up with atop 10 list that features the
most memorable moments for thatyear.
What makes it even morechallenging is the number of
sports that need to beconsidered, and as far as where
they rank in the top 10, thatall comes down to the criteria I
came up with, which, I admit,is very subjective.
So here we go.
First, what was the emotionalimpact of that moment?
In other words, how did theresult cause me to react?
(09:06):
Or, as I like to say, to whatextent did it peg the meter?
Second, how significant was themoment?
In other words, did it occurduring the regular season?
Was there a league title on theline?
Were the mids going againstArmy?
If that moment occurred in anyone of those three scenarios,
there's a pretty good chance itwas considered.
And finally, third, was a newschool record set?
It's tough enough competing inany sport at the academy, so
when a team or individualathlete sets a school record,
that needs to be looked at.
(09:26):
Okay, so now you know what mythought process was.
Let's go ahead and get started.
But before I get to number 10, Idid want to kick things off
with an honorable mention, andit goes to the Navy Rowing
Program.
This event actually occurredafter last year's sports season
ended and before this year'sbegan, but it definitely
deserves a spotlight becausethree Navy rowers were crowned
as world champions.
That's right.
I said world champions, notnational champions.
This all happened last July atthe Under-23 World Rowing
(09:49):
Championships in Plovdiv,Bulgaria.
Mason Banks and Jackson Fullerwere invited to try out for the
national team and they wereselected to represent the United
States in the lightweight pairsevent.
Meanwhile, Lauren Day wasselected as a member of the
women's eight crew.
Banks and Fuller rode anoutstanding championship race.
They were less than a second infront of Italy at the 500 meter
mark, but by 1,000 metersthey'd opened up a three and a
half second lead.
(10:09):
And that was as close as theItalians got the rest of the way
, as Banks and Fuller finishedthe 2,000 meter course in 6
minutes 36.37 seconds, which wasnearly four seconds ahead of
the second place Italians.
Now moving over to the Women's 8championship race.
It was almost an identicalresult.
Lauren Day was in the secondseat and she helped keep the
team stroke for stroke withGermany in the opening 500.
From there, the US Shell founda second gear and they opened up
(10:30):
a two-second lead at thehalfway point.
They ended up winning the racewith a time of 6 minutes 9.14
seconds, which was over fourseconds better than the German
team.
So there you go Mason Banks,jackson Fuller and Lauren Day
became the latest worldchampions from the Naval Academy
in rowing, and it really doestell you what kind of quality
program that coaching staff hasput together at Hubbard Hall.
Now, for those of you who maynot know it, rowing is one of
(10:52):
the more internationalcollegiate sports around.
If you look at the rosters fromsome of the top programs, the
majority of the athletes in anumber one boat comes from
either Europe or some othercountry where rowing is huge Let
me give you an example or someother country where rowing is
huge.
Let me give you an example.
Earlier this month at the IRAChampionships, harvard took home
the lightweight title and Itook a look at the crew of their
number one boat.
There were three rowers fromthe UK, one each from New
Zealand, south Africa and Canadaand only two were from the
(11:15):
United States, and actuallythree if you count the coxswain.
On the women's side, theUniversity of Texas won the D1
Championship.
They actually did a little bitbetter with four rowers and the
coxswain coming from the US, butthey still had two from the UK
and one each from Denmark andthe Netherlands, and on the
heavyweight side, you see iteven more the University of
Washington's 1 V8 boat thatended up winning the title had
(11:35):
three rowers and the coxswainfrom the UK, two from Norway and
one each from Italy, newZealand and the United States.
Now I put all that out there tosay that the athletes who row
for the Naval Academy face toughinternational competition every
time they get into a shellduring the season.
So it is really cool to see theMids winning championships when
they take on these eliteathletes on the world stage.
All right, it is always greatto show some love to the Navy
(11:56):
rowing program.
So now let's go ahead and jumpinto our countdown.
Coming in at number 10, navySprint Football pulls off the
three-peat.
These guys made the countdownlast year after going undefeated
and winning their secondconsecutive college sprint
football championship.
This season proved to be alittle bit more challenging.
They did win their first twogames but then lost to Army 10-3
up at West Point, and theoffense, which had scored 72
(12:20):
points in those first couple ofcontests, just couldn't get
anything going.
But the Mids did manage to turnthings around from there.
They outscored their next fouropponents by an average of 44-10
.
And just pretty much like everyother year, they went up
against Army in the championshipgame, but this time things were
a lot different.
The Mids tied the score at 7when the defense returned a
block punt for a touchdown andthen quarterback Brandon Atwood
connected on a couple of scoringpasses to Hunter Gennicks and
(12:42):
Kai Sasaki to take a 21-10 lead.
That was stretched to 28-10after a one-yard run by Devyn
Martin early in the fourthquarter.
The Black Knights did come upwith a couple of touchdowns to
make the score 28-23, but theNavy offense got the ball back
with 7.48 to go in the game andran out the clock to seal the
win and the championship.
It's tough enough to win onetitle, no matter what sport
you're talking about.
So pulling off a three-peat ispretty amazing, and that's the
(13:03):
reason the sprint football teamlanded at number 10 in our
countdown, moving on to numbernine.
We've got the Navy women'striathlon team qualifying for
nationals in their first year asa varsity program.
Now it was about a year agothat the Navy women's triathlon
team was elevated from club tovarsity status.
Actually, the club team wasco-ed, but triathlon is an
emerging sport on the women'sside, so that was one of the
reasons this move was made.
(13:24):
I had a chance to interviewCoach Billy Edwards, from the
class of 2001, before the seasonstarted.
His team of seven womenfinished second in their very
first event and then they wenton to pick up a fifth and sixth
place finish in their next twobefore winning the Waterman
Sprint Triathlon just before theregional qualifier.
They came in sixth out of 20teams in that event and that was
good enough to get them tonationals, which took place out
here in Tempe, arizona.
(13:45):
The mids pre-race seating was12th and they ended up finishing
11th overall out of 31 teams.
Haley Harris was the mids topfinisher, coming in 36th out of
the 211 athletes who competed.
I actually had a chance tointerview the entire team the
day before the Nationals back inNovember.
It was a really goodconversation and I tell you what
.
I'm going to go ahead andinclude a link to it in the show
notes in case you want to checkit out.
I'm also going to see if I canget Coach Edwards back on the
(14:07):
show before the season starts.
He was a lot of fun to speakwith and I know he's got big
plans for the team, given thesuccess he's had in the past.
So congratulations to to thewomen's triathlon team on a
terrific first season, whichearned them the number nine spot
on our list.
Up next at number eight, navyGymnastics wins their sixth
straight ECAC championship,sending four team members to
(14:29):
nationals.
This Navy Gymnastics program hasquietly become one of the best
on the East Coast.
Years ago, in the starcompetition, this was
practically an automatic W forArmy, but it's a much different
story now.
The mids are 14 and four overthe last 18 years, and their
current winning streak stands at7.
At the ECAC Championships, theteam came up with some of their
best performances and put up aseason-high 401.45 points.
Isaiah Drake took theall-around title, while his
classmate Riley Rose won thegold medal in the rings and the
(14:51):
high bar, and then sophomoreMatthew Petros picked up the
mids' third individual title onthe parallel bars.
Drake and Petros went on tocompete at Nationals and they
were joined by sophomores DaniloVicciana on the high bar and
Colby Prince in the floorexercise.
Coach Kip Simons has done afantastic job since he came to
Navy 10 years ago.
He continues to recruit topgymnasts and he's sent at least
one to Nationals in each season.
(15:12):
The only exception was 2020,when the championships were
canceled due to the COVIDpandemic.
This program has been soconsistent over the years and
they get that number eight spotin our countdown because of
their strong showing this year.
That included that sixthstraight ECAC championship.
So great job to Coach Simonsand the entire Navy gymnastics
team.
That brings us to number seven.
Navy defeats North Texas 27-24for their second win of the year
(15:34):
.
Now, on its face, there wasnothing all that remarkable
about this game.
The Mids came into it with a1-3 record, while North Texas
was 2-2.
But the most noteworthy pieceof news heading into this game
was that the coaching staff haddecided to sit Ty Lavitae and
start Blake Horvath against theMean Green.
Obviously that's not what thesenior quarterback wanted to
hear, but he reacted like a trueprofessional and he did his
part to help Horvath prepare forthe game.
(15:56):
The Mids punted on their firsttwo possessions so they didn't
get off to a really quick startand they were down 3-0 in the
second quarter.
Then Alex Tex had broke throughfor a 39-yard touchdown run,
giving them the lead.
After a couple more changes ofpossession, north Texas retook
the lead 10-7, with just underthree minutes to go in the half.
(16:17):
Following the kickoff, horvathwent to the sidelines and that's
when the coaching staff hadfound out he had suffered an
injury to his thumb and hewasn't coming back.
So now in comes Ty Lavitae.
After an incomplete pass hepicked up 20 yards on a third
and eight by exploding throughthe right side of the line and
making a really nice cut toavoid a tackle.
And on the very next play hethrows an absolutely perfect,
high-arching touch pass to theright side of the end zone,
(16:39):
hitting Nathan Kent for thetouchdown, just inside the
sideline.
I mean, the only way Lavitaecould have delivered the ball
any better would have been if hehad run over to Kent and placed
the ball in his hands himself.
The Mids now had a 14-10 leadgoing into the locker room With
Lavitae at the controls.
The rest of the way the offensetacked on a field goal and
another touchdown.
After a big 38-yard completiontook the ball to the North Texas
(16:59):
one-yard line.
Anton Hall punched it in fromthere.
One more field goal made thescore 27-17, and although North
Texas did add one more touchdown, the Mids defense held on down
the stretch and they won thegame 27-24.
Lavati's attitude going intothis contest and then his
performance when his number wascalled tells you everything you
need to know about him.
This guy is a real pro.
It was one of those feel-goodmoments, and the entire coaching
(17:21):
staff could not say enoughabout how well he handled the
situation.
Though the season ended indisappointing fashion, that game
against North Texas was a highpoint for Lavitae, and it was
his professionalism andtoughness in leading the Navy
football team that got him tonumber seven in our top 10.
Now, at number six, we havewhat I think is another really
cool story, and for that we'regoing to look at the Navy
women's basketball team.
(17:42):
For them, the 2022-23 season wasjust plain miserable.
Jennifer Coleman, who wasarguably one of the best to ever
put on a Navy jersey, hadgraduated.
The returning team definitelyhad some raw talent and they
certainly weren't short oneffort, but this particular
group didn't have the same kindof game experience in what was a
very competitive Patriot League, and because of that, the Mids
(18:02):
endured one really tough year.
They wound up winning just oneconference game against 17
losses.
In fact, that win was the onlyone they had all season, but
while this young team was takingtheir lumps, they were also
getting a lot of big-time gameexperience that would start
paying off the next season.
Coach Tim Taylor also brought inan excellent group of recruits
for the class of 2027, and twoof them had an immediate impact.
Both Zanai Barnett-Gay and KyahSmith quickly stepped in to
(18:25):
give the mids a solid backcourttandem.
Barnett-gay led the team inboth scoring and rebounding,
averaging 18.2 points per gameand 6.2 rebounds.
Smith was second in scoringwith 12.1 points per game, and
she was first in assists.
The team finished strong,winning seven of their last 10
games to wind up just one gameout of second place in the
conference.
They qualified for the PatriotLeague tournament and beat
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Lafayette in the first roundbefore losing a tight one to
number two-seeded Colgate 69-64.
The Mids actually led that gameat halftime, but just couldn't
hang on.
When you look at it, though, itwas still a remarkable
turnaround to the season.
The team went from a 1-17record in league play to 9-9
with a tournament win, and theydid it with a young team that
continues to gain moreexperience.
This year's edition of the Navywomen's basketball team won't
(19:07):
have any seniors at all, but thesophomores and juniors that
they have taking the court areall well-tested, and if Coach
Taylor's group of incomingfreshmen are even close to the
level of talent that ZanaiBarnett-Gay and Kyah Smith have,
the Mid's should improve on aterrific bounce back season that
pushed them to number six inthis year's countdown of the 10
most memorable moments in Navyathletics.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
(19:29):
to stay up to date on Navysports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't
(19:49):
matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
We are halfway through ourcountdown of the top 10 most
(20:22):
memorable moments of the Navysports season.
I'm curious to know how my listcompares to yours.
So after we finish up, send mea text using the link on the
page to let me know what youthink.
Okay, let's go ahead andcontinue with number five on our
countdown.
Navy men's lacrosse defeatsnumber eight-ranked Johns
Hopkins on the road.
In overtime.
The Navy men's lacrosse teamhad what can best be described
(20:43):
as an uneven year this pastspring.
At times they gave opposingteams fits, and then there were
other times when the consistencyjust wasn't there, and there
was one game in particular whenwe saw both versions of that
team.
But, lucky for the mids, theyshowed the Blue Jays just how
well they were capable ofplaying when it counted the most
.
As I mentioned, hopkins wasranked 8th in the country and
Navy traveled up to Baltimore toplay them on March 15th.
(21:05):
Two years ago, Max Hewitt, whowas then a sophomore, scored two
goals in less than a minute atcrunch time to give the mids the
win.
It was their first at HomewoodField since 1969.
Now he was back to try and havea similar impact.
But things got ugly really fastfor the Mids.
The Blue Jays scored six timesin the opening quarter to take a
four-goal lead into the second.
Everything was going their way,while Navy just couldn't seem
(21:26):
to do much of anything right.
That's when the entire flow ofthe game changed.
The Mids held Hopkins scorelessin the second quarter, while
coming up with three more goalsto make the score 6-5.
Dane Swanson scored two of themand Henry Tolker got the other
one off an assist from Hewitt,so starting the second half.
Navy found itself back in thegame and now the fight was on.
Swanson's third goal, and thenanother by Tolker, gave the Mids
(21:48):
a 9-7 lead going into thefourth quarter.
And after that, sixth goaloutburst by the Blue Jays to
start the game.
The Navy defense really put theclamps on them.
Put the clamps on them, onlyallowing one goal in 32 minutes
of playing time.
Hopkins didn't go quietly,though they were not interested
in losing to the mids a secondstraight time at home.
Their offense finally got goingagain and they scored twice in
the fourth quarter to square thegame at 9.
Neither team managed to breakthe tie in the last two minutes,
(22:10):
so it was time for some freelacrosse as the game went into
overtime.
The Mids won the criticalfaceoff.
To get things started, thanksto freshman Zach Hayashi, they
worked the ball around beforeXavier Arline took a shot that
went slightly wide.
It was backed up, though, andseconds later Swanson found
Hewitt at the top of the box onthe right side.
After getting past his defender, the senior from Denver,
colorado attacked the cage andcut to his left just outside the
(22:31):
top of the crease.
He would doze to his left andgot off his shot while staying
clear of the crease and hadfound the back of the net just
as he hit the ground.
After a quick review, the goalwas confirmed and the Mids had
another win against a top 10ranked opponent.
Those last three quarters thatthey played against the Blue
Jays were among the best thatthe Navy men's lacrosse team had
played all year, and the factthat they reached that level
while playing such ahigh-powered Johns Hopkins team
(22:52):
got them to number five on ourlist In the number four spot,
just ahead of the men, we've gotthe women's lacrosse team
defeats Army to clinch the StarSeries.
This was one top ten moment Iactually witnessed personally.
My wife and I made the trip outto Annapolis in April, and I
(23:12):
picked that specific weekendbecause I'd never seen the women
play other than on ESPN Plus orthe CBS Sports Network.
There was a lot at stake.
Also, the Mids had lost thelast two star games to Army, so
they needed to get that trendgoing in the other direction.
Even more importantly, a winhere would clinch the star
series for the year.
And this was after the Midsfell behind 6-1 in the fall.
The game was physical right fromthe very start.
After trailing early 3-2, theNavy offense reeled off four
straight goals to take a 6-3lead.
(23:33):
The Black Knights got one backbefore the first quarter ended,
but the Mids defense reallyclamped down in the second,
giving up just two scores.
Meanwhile, the offense led byEmily Messonese and Tori DiCarlo
came up with five goals to takean 11-6 lead.
Into the locker room.
The one player who reallyhelped the Mids dictate the pace
of the game was Alyssa Daly,she's Navy's draw control
(23:54):
specialist.
The mids won that battle 26-5,and Daly had 17 of them on her
own.
That was just one short of therecord held by Reagan Roloffs.
The two teams scored four timeseach in the third quarter.
So the mids held on to theirfive-goal lead at 15-10, and
from there it was all over.
But the shouting.
Mikayla Williams picked up herthird goal goal and Lola Leone
closed out the scoring.
In the fourth quarter, the Midscame away with an emotional
(24:15):
17-11 win.
Not only did it snap thattwo-game losing streak in the
star competition, but it alsoclinched the ninth consecutive
star series for Navy, and that'sdefinitely worth a number four
ranking on our list.
Okay, now we're up to numberthree.
The women's tennis team winstheir first Patriot League title
.
There are a total of 12 women'ssports at the Naval Academy,
(24:35):
not including the three co-edprograms, which are rifle,
offshore sailing and collegiatesailing.
Ten of those 12 teams are inthe Patriot League and going
into the 2023-24 sports season,each of them could list a
Patriot League championshipamong their accomplishments,
except for one.
The women's tennis team becamea varsity program in the
2009-2010 season under coachKeith Puryear, and through his
(24:58):
first 15 years he'd compiled anoutstanding 51-13 record in
conference play and an overallrecord of 194-43.
The only thing missing was aPatriot League championship.
The mids had made it to thetitle match seven times under
coach Puryear, but were deniedby either Boston University or
Army, two of the strongestprograms in the league.
This year, the team wasdefinitely on a mission.
Led by Emily Tannenbaum andKate Lee, they put together a
(25:22):
terrific 18-5 record going intotheir star match against Army.
They defeated the Black Knights4-2, but then lost to Boston
University by the same score thefollowing week.
Even so, they had a good enoughseason to earn them the number
two seat in the tournament,after taking care of Bucknell.
In the quarterfinals the midshad to face Army again, with a
trip to the championship on theline.
(25:42):
It was a back-and-forth contestthat all came down to the
number six singles match betweenNavy's Parvati Shankar and
Paige Harriman from Army.
They split their first two sets, but then Shankar found herself
down 4-1 in the third.
She managed to battle back tosquare the match at four apiece,
but two games later she wasbehind again 5-4, facing match
point, and things did not lookgood.
Shanker fought off that matchpoint and then took that game as
well as the next two, to closeout the match 7-5.
(26:03):
The mids were on their way totheir eighth Patriot League
final no-transcript.
That meant Sia Chowdhury andKay Lee had to win their matches
(26:24):
, otherwise the team was lookingat another runner-up finish.
Chowdhury dropped her first set, 6-love, but then she found her
rhythm, taking the final twosets 6-3 and 6-2.
Now all eyes were on the numberfour singles match, where Li
and her opponent, emily Zhao,were deadlocked at a set apiece
and headed to a third settiebreaker.
Zhao took a commanding 5-1 leadbefore Li won three straight
points to close the 5-4.
(26:45):
The only problem was that Liwas going to be on the receiving
end of the next two points andZhao was serving pretty well.
Li lost that first point andnow, with the score 6-4, in the
tiebreaker she was looking attwo championship points against
her.
If she lost either one, it wasall over.
What happened next wasunbelievable.
Li took the next point to getback on serve at 6-5, then she
(27:05):
won both of her server's pointsto take a 7-6 lead.
Now it was her opponent who wasserving to stay in the match.
Zhao eventually sent a forehandlong on that point and after
over two and a half longgrueling hours, the match was
finally over and it ended inabsolutely stunning fashion.
And, by the way, navy Athleticshas a great highlight video on
this title match.
I'll put a link to it in theshow notes and I'm telling you
it's definitely a must-see.
(27:26):
There are few things moregratifying than seeing the pure
joy that athletes experiencewhen they win their first league
championship.
The entire team just mobbedKate Lee after that last point
and then to watch the reactionof Coach Puryear and his staff.
That was just priceless.
So the Navy women's tennis teamfinally won that elusive first
Patriot League championship bybeating the two programs that
previously had their number onconsecutive days, and that's
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what earned them the numberthree position in our top 10.
All right, here we go withnumber two.
Navy Men's Track sends fourathletes to the NCAA
Championships.
Last year I heard an interviewwith Navy Javelin thrower Braden
Presser.
This was right after his sixthplace finish in the event, which
earned him First TeamAll-America honors.
One of the things Presser saidwas that he was looking forward
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to getting back to thechampionships next year and
having some of his teammatesjoin him.
This spring, three more membersof the men's track team made the
trip with Presser to Nationals,which took place in Eugene,
oregon.
They were Josh Boma in the shotput and hammer throw, ramir
Vick in 110 meter hurdles andNathan Kent in the 400 meters.
Both Kent and Vick made it tothe semifinals.
In fact, both of them recordedthe third fastest times in
(28:30):
school history in their tworespective races.
All four athletes were named tothe All-America team.
The last time this many men hadqualified for nationals was
back in 1947.
And you know, something tellsme this could become a regular
occurrence.
Kent still has two years leftat Navy and he's got all kinds
of potential.
Had he run his time of 48.85 inthat third semifinal heat
(28:51):
instead of the first one that hewas in, he would have made the
final.
Based on the qualifying criteria, the performances of Braden,
presser, josh Boma, ramir Vickand Nathan Kent capped off an
amazing year for the men's trackteam.
All four of them were invitedto compete in the Olympic trials
, and that's where Nathan Kentlowered his school record twice
in the 400 meters, while againmaking it to the semifinals.
I am a little bit fuzzy on howthat works, though, as it
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relates to a school record,since the Olympic trials weren't
really an NCAA event.
It doesn't really matter,though.
Presser, boma, vick and Kentmade history on the strength of
their performances all year long, and their accomplishments as a
group made it the second mostmemorable moment of this Navy
sports season.
And that brings us to the mostmemorable moment.
But let me go ahead and do aquick recap of numbers 10
through 2.
(29:33):
First At number 10, navy SprintFootball pulls off the
championship.
Three-peat Number 9, the NavyWomen's Triathlon Team qualifies
for nationals in its firstyears of varsity program.
Number 8, navy Gymnastics winstheir sixth consecutive ECAC
championship, sending four teammembers to nationals.
Number 7, navy defeats NorthTexas 27-24.
(29:54):
Number six Navy women'sbasketball has a strong
bounce-back season.
Number five men's lacrossedefeats eighth-ranked Johns
Hopkins on the road in overtime.
Number four women's lacrossebeats Army to clinch the star
series.
Number three the women's tennisteam wins its first Patriot
League title.
And at number two, the Navymen's track team sends four
(30:15):
athletes to the NCAAchampionships.
And finally, we come to the mostmemorable moment of this year's
sports season, and for this oneyou had to go all the way back
to the fall, to November in factand it took the top spot
because it was packed with thekind of drama and emotion that
make college sports so much funto watch.
And, of course, it didn't hurtthat the opponent happened to be
Army in this case either.
So I've kept you waiting longenough.
(30:37):
At number one in our countdownof the 10 most memorable moments
in Navy sports this year, thewomen's volleyball team comes
from behind to beat Army to takeits first star since 2018.
Now, I don't want to give youthe impression that the mids
weren't having any success atall against the Black Knights
since Coach Paco Labrador tookover that same year.
The fact is, his teams havebeaten Army at least once each
(30:58):
season, but most of those winsdid not come in a star match.
These two teams face each othertwice a year and potentially a
third time in the playoffs, andevery time the Navy won it was
in either the non-star match orin the Patriot League tournament
In 2023, the mids dropped theirfirst contest against the Black
Knights up at West Point threesets to one.
Navy was coming off a toughfive-set road loss to Lehigh the
(31:21):
night before and had to dealwith a pretty fresh Army squad,
and unfortunately they could notstop Army's outside hitters,
who went on to have a veryefficient match.
The mids dropped the first twosets before winning the third
one, but they just couldn'textend the match beyond that,
losing the fourth set 25-22.
Luckily, the star match wouldbe played five weeks later in
Annapolis, so there was still anopportunity to get a split for
the year in a game that had justa little bit more riding on it.
(31:43):
At first, the match looked justlike a continuation of the last
one.
The Black Knights won the firsttwo sets pretty easily 25-16
and 25-18.
They were very aggressive onoffense, registering 13 kills in
the first game and 18 in thesecond, compared to just 7 and
11 for Navy.
But thanks to the Llewellynsisters, jamie and Jordan, the
Mids began to find their footing.
They had 16 kills in the thirdset to take it by a score of
(32:05):
25-20.
The fourth set saw Navy fallbehind 15-10 before they battled
back to tie things up at 16.
They kept the pressure on byforcing Army into some critical
attack errors, resulting inanother 25-20 win.
The deciding fifth set was areal fight.
I watched it on ESPN+ and theone thing I can tell you is that
the Wesley A Brown field housewas absolutely packed.
(32:25):
Navy football fans had justwatched the Mids beat Alabama
Birmingham 31-6, and a bunch ofthem came over to support the
volleyball team.
The crowd noise wasunbelievable.
Every single point was criticaland initially the mids seemed
to feed off that support.
They had leads of 5-1 and 11-5before the Black Knights ran off
six in a row to tie the scoreat 11.
Now, just as a reminder, thefifth set in college volleyball
(32:48):
just goes to 15, not 25.
So again, every point matters,navy won three out of the next
four to get to 14-12 in matchpoint.
Now the stage was set for anamazing finish.
Freshman Arlie Hansen got aclean serve in play.
Army's kill attempt was dug out.
They set things up for JamieLlewellyn but her try was turned
away.
Going back to the Navy side,the ball went right to sophomore
(33:10):
Laney Ferry, who executed justabout as perfect a bump pass as
you could make under pressure toHansen, who was one of the
mid's main setters.
The other one is Avery Miller,a senior with over 2,700 assists
to her credit.
Miller's also six feet tall andshe is a legitimate offensive
threat.
In this particular sequence.
Miller was set up as an outsidehitter on the right and Larson
could set it to Jamie Llewellyn,who was in front of her on the
(33:32):
left, or put up a back set toMiller.
She decided to go with the backset and Miller absolutely
hammered it home.
Point, game set and match.
The Mids had completed anunbelievable comeback and the
entire field house just wentabsolutely berserk.
It was an incredibly drainingand emotional win.
Coach Labrador made it a pointto mention how important the
(33:52):
crowd support was, especiallyover those last three sets.
I'm going to put a link tothese match highlights in the
show notes as well.
You just have to check them out.
This volleyball match had it all.
There was the adversity thatthe team had to deal with in
falling behind two sets to none,and then they had to manage
their emotions and the momentumchanges as they fought their way
back.
Finally, the composure theydisplayed in that
(34:13):
pressure-packed fifth set wasjust unreal, and it's for all of
those reasons that the women'svolleyball team stands at number
one on our list of the mostmemorable moments in Navy sports
this year.
All right, that does it forthis year's countdown.
Be sure to let me know what youthink.
Were there any sports momentsthat got your attention?
If so, send me a short text andlet me know.
I'll be sure to share it in ournext episode.
(34:35):
Thanks for hanging in therewith me up to this point.
All we've got left is ourquestion of the day, so stick
around.
All right, it is time to wrapthings up with our question of
(35:02):
the day, as we always do.
Let's go ahead and check theresponses to the question from
our last episode, and it wentlike this brady impressor was
just named an all-american inoutdoor track and field in the
javelin for the third straightyear.
When was the last time someonefrom the men's track team earned
this distinction of qualifyingas an All-American for three
consecutive seasons in hisrespective event?
Was it A 1947, b 1976, c 1983,or D 2012?
(35:25):
So, basically, here's how theresponses broke down.
The most popular one was C 1983.
There were 85% of those whoresponded that gave that answer.
Next was 1947, which you recall, was the last time the Mids had
four athletes qualify for theNCAA championships.
14% of you went with that one.
Then the next answer was B 1976.
(35:47):
There were 1% of you who gavethat answer, and no one selected
D, which was 2012.
So it turns out the rightanswer was C 1983.
And I remember this wellbecause, of course, that was
when I was at the academy and Iwas just finishing up my junior
year.
But the guy that everybody hadtheir eyes on that year was Leo
Williams.
He was a Navy high jumper andhe was from the class of 83, and
(36:09):
he was something else.
Williams won the NCAA OutdoorChampionship in the high jump in
1981, to go along with twoindoor championships in 1981 and
1982.
His winning jump outdoors in1981 was 2.25 meters, which
converts to 7 feet 4.5 inches.
Williams was named anAll-American in 1981, 82, and 83
.
He also won a silver medal atthe 1983 Pan Am Games and was an
(36:30):
alternate on the 84 Olympicteam after finishing fourth at
the Olympic trials.
So it's pretty clear that LeoWilliams was one of the most
decorated track athletes to everpass through Annapolis, and
congratulations to all of youwho came up with that answer.
Now here's this week's question.
You heard me say earlier thatat the time of the Army-Navy
volleyball star match, averyMiller had a total of 2,700
(36:51):
career assists.
At the time of the Army-Navyvolleyball star match, avery
Miller had a total of 2,700career assists.
She ended up finishing with2,748.
Where does this rank herall-time among Navy volleyball
players?
Is it A first, b, second, c,third or D fourth?
Think about that one and let meknow what you came up with.
If you feel like answering rightnow, you can send me a text.
(37:11):
This is assuming you're notdriving, or anything like that.
You can also go to the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page and give me your answerthere.
I'll look forward to gettingyour replies.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all.
So much for joining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
(37:32):
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
You can also respond by sendingus a text.
All you need to do is click onthe link in the show notes.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
(37:55):
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody,until next time.
This is karl Darden Go.
Navy! Beat Army!
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