DURHAM – The
North Carolina A&T volleyball team saw its season come to an end
on
Monday with a 3-1 loss (25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-16) to N.C. Central at
McLendon-McDougald Gymnasium.
Senior Janae Mitchell closed out her career with 14 kills and six
digs.
In five of her final seven matches, Mitchell recorded double-figure
kills. She recorded double-doubles in three of those matches. Redshirt
senior Tiffany Mellette had 18 digs and junior setter Amber Inman
finished with 25 assists and 13 digs.
The Aggies end their season at 2-31 mainly because they lacked depth
all
season long. Head coach Toni Conway did not arrive in Aggieland until
July, which made it impossible to add depth. Add to that the passing
of
Conway's mother during her inaugural season as head coach, and the
Aggies had a lot more to deal with than just services aces and blocks
this season.
Still, the Aggies are optimistic about their rebuilding opportunities.
They will lose three seniors off this season's roster. Plus, redshirt
junior LaShawn White has already made it clear she will not use the
last
year of her eligibility, so there is room for a robust recruiting
class.
But before the future begins, the Aggies were still showing fight on
Monday night. After losing a tough first set in which they led 21-20,
the Aggies bounced back with a thrilling victory in set No. 2. A
Belinda
Behncke-Biney kill gave the Eagles a commanding 23-16 lead.
Mellette returned the serve back to the Aggies with a kill that sliced
the lead to six. Junior Bridget McCaskill followed with a service ace
and momentum seemed to follow as well. After an Eagles attack error,
McCaskill registered another service ace to put the Aggies down 23-20.
A
forceful Mitchell kill forced the Eagles to call timeout, but by that
time it was too late.
The Eagles committed three straight attack errors, and Mitchell closed
out the Aggies improbable 9-0 run with a kill to earn the second set
victory. The Aggies couldn't sustain the momentum, however. After
pulling to within one in the third set off of an Inman kill, two
attack
errors and a service error doomed the Aggies chances of doing much
more.
In
addition to Mitchell and White, Mellette and Stacey Malone also had
their careers come to an end Monday night.
