Nov. 14, 2007

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. -- Navy senior outside hitter Rachel Dougherty (Derwood, Md.) was one of seven players to earn First-Team All-Patriot League honors for volleyball as voted on by the league's coaches and announced Wednesday by the league office. It is the first time Dougherty has received an end-of-the year accolade from the league.

Dougherty ranks second in the Patriot League this season with a school-record 4.53 kills-per-game average and needs 11 kills to reach 500 for the year and set an additional Navy single season record. She has been ranked among the NCAA leaders all season with a 0.55 service aces-per-game average and is averaging a career-best 1.70 digs per game.

One of just five players during Navy's 17-year Division I era to tally 1,000 career kills (current total is 1,126), Dougherty also ranks fifth at Navy with 273 career blocks. She recently knocked down a career-high 30 kills during Navy's five-game victory over UMBC, the third-highest single-match total by a Mid in school history and just two shy of tying the Navy standard.

In addition to her accomplishments on the volleyball court, Dougherty also has received numerous academic honors while at the Naval Academy. A physics major, she has accrued a 3.89 cumulative grade-point average and has posted a 4.00 GPA during four of her six completed semesters. She was selected as one of 15 Bowman Scholars at Navy for the current academic year, which provides her with the opportunity to study for one year at the Naval Postgraduate School and receive early admission into the Navy's nuclear surface warfare program. One of the requirements for all Bowman Scholars is to complete an independent study program. The title and subject of her project is the Isotopic Information from Proton Induced Gamma Ray Emission Measurements.

During one weekend this season, Dougherty totaled 16 kills in a match on Friday night, took the GRE exam Saturday morning and recorded 22 kills in a five-game match later that afternoon. The following Monday she garnered the first of her back-to-back Patriot League Player-of-the-Week honors.

Navy, the No. 4 seed in the Patriot League Tournament, will face top-seeded American Friday at 6 p.m. in Washington, D.C., during the semifinal round of the championship. The winner of that match will then play the winner of the No. 2 Army vs. No. 3 Colgate match Saturday at 7 p.m. in the title tilt.

2007 Volleyball All-Patriot League Teams

First Team
Name, School, Class, Pos.
Chelsa Brooks, American, Sr., MB
Rubena Sukaj, American, Jr., OH
Rachael Breinling, Army, Jr., MH
Jamie Clark, Army, Jr., MB
Jenna Henderson, Bucknell, Sr., OH
Katrina Zawojski, Colgate, Jr., RS
Rachel Dougherty, Navy, Sr., OH

Second Team
Name, School, Class, Pos.
Ivana Cebakova, American, So., DS
Maureen Bannon, Army, So., S
Jackie Adlam, Colgate, Jr., L
Casey Ritt, Colgate, Fr., MB
Christine Strawson, Holy Cross, Sr., OH
Michaela Donohue, Lafayette, Sr., OH
Shannon Spafford, Lehigh, Sr., MB