After Action Report: Army Golf, Air Force Football and Navy Volleyball

It’s been a couple weeks since we last updated the Ike Award standings, and we’ve had a couple major contests, with each school scoring a victory in the past two weekends. I’ll do my best to catch you up on what’s taken place, and give you what’s on deck as there are four contests this week alone!

Of note, I had Air Force-Navy tennis down, but the flight structure at the Joe Hunt invite a couple weekends ago makes it difficult to award anyone a victory, though Air Force had a more successful weekend, winning three flights.

Army vs Navy Men’s Golf

The same weekend that the USA squad was getting destroyed by Europe in the Ryder Cup, the Army golf team was beating Navy in a similar fashion to claim a star in the USAA Star Series and give the Black Knights another Ike Award victory on the season.

Army was up 3.5-0.5 after the four-ball competition day one. They would cruise to victory on Sunday, winning the star by a score of 8-3.

Senior Matt Plunkett was named Army Athlete of the Week for his weekend, going undefeated by teaming up with Justin Williamson to win a four-ball competition 2 up and then coming from behind in his singles competition in dramatic fashion. After falling behind early, he found himself 1 up on the 18th hole and sank a 50 foot putt to seal the victory and help Army clinch the star for the sixth time in seven seasons.

Air Force vs Navy Football

There isn’t much more to be said about this one. Check out our recap for a full breakdown of the game, as Air Force dominated Navy 35-7 to win the first leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy race. It was a dominant performance on defense the entire game and the emergence of Donald Hammond III at quarterback that propelled the Falcons to 2-3 on the season and in need of defeating Army to reclaim the CIC back to Colorado Springs.

Army vs Navy Volleyball

The Navy volleyball seniors stepped up in a big way as they won a three set victory against Army to claim the star and continue to build on a great first season for new head coach Paco Labrador. Behind a raucous crowd at Wesley Brown Field House, the Mids would never trail in the first set, winning it 25-18 and following that up with a 25-16 win in the second set and closing it out 25-23 in a third set that wasn’t close until late.

Senior Patricia Mattingly set the Navy record for assists in the game, and was joined by fellow seniors Katie Patrick and Sydney Shearn in leading the dominant performance and getting a win to keep their terrific campaign going.

Up next, we have four Star matches this weekend between Army and Navy. Men’s and women’s cross country will both compete in Annapolis Saturday morning. Women’s soccer will take on Army at the Glenn Warner soccer facility on the Naval Academy campus Friday night. Men’s soccer will try and get their first Patriot League win as they face Army in Chester, PA.

Current Ike Award Standings:

Air Force: 2-2-1 (50% winning percentage)

Army: 2-1-1 (62.5% winning percentage)

Navy: 3-5 (37.5% winning percentage)