While Cupid was busy firing arrows on Valentine’s Day, No. 14 Akron was at its home range and locked in on the firing line against No. 16 Army. The squad from United States Military Academy knew that it would take its “A” game to challenge the Zips—and that’s exactly how the day unfolded.
In a razor-thin contest where each shot is worth up to 10 points, Army edged Akron 4706 to 4700. The Zips posted their third-highest team score of the season, but Army answered with a season-best performance to secure the victory. Just six points separated the teams.
Akron senior Natalia Siek delivered a Senior Day performance to remember, sweeping Top Gun honors in both disciplines. She led the smallbore field with a 590, tying Army’s Hannah Dufresne. The tie was broken by center shots, where Siek prevailed 40 to 32. She followed that with an outstanding 595 in air rifle—just five points shy of perfection—to claim her second individual title of the match.
Akron senior Joseph Hahn added to the highlight reel with a perfect 200 in the prone position. Siek matched that flawless mark with her own 200 prone, and freshman Kathleen Moran gave a glimpse of the future by firing the first perfect prone score of her collegiate career. That string of perfection propelled Akron to its top smallbore team score of the season, a 2341 out of 2400. Overall, the 4700 team score replaces last week’s third-highest mark and gives the Zips three scores of 4700 or better for NCAA Championship selection consideration—a first in program history.
The top shooter for Army was Hannah Dufresne who ranked second on the individual aggregate leaderboard, four points behind Siek with 1181-71X.
Army vs. Akron Scorecard
On Saturday, Feb. 21, Akron will host one of 12 NCAA qualifier matches nationwide at Schrank Hall South. Mount Aloysius College and Schreiner University will join the Zips on the range, with firing set to begin at 9:00 a.m. Targets may be viewed live at shooteronline.net.
Learn more about the Akron and West Point rifle teams.
