GREENSBORO – A little more than a week ago the North Carolina A&T volleyball team endured a disappointing loss to rival N.C. Central. The Aggies then took a week off from competition, retooled some things and responded with two big home wins at Moore Gymnasium over the weekend.
Two days after taking down Savannah State at home, the Aggies scored a three-set win over S.C. State Sunday afternoon at Moore, 26-24, 25-19, 25-17. N.C. A&T improved to 4-7 overall and 2-1 in the MEAC ahead of big road trip to Florida in which they play Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M Oct. 9 and 11 respectively.
“You always have to defend your home court because it is so hard to win on the road,” said N.C. A&T head coach Hal Clifton. “Savannah State is a much better team than they've been in the past, and South Carolina State beat Central on Friday so I knew they would be excited. Getting both of those wins really puts us in a good position when we go down to Florida.”
N.C. A&T played one of their most effective offensive matches of the season. Over the final two sets the Aggies posted a combined.317 hitting percentage against the Bulldogs (1-11, 1-3 MEAC). Senior Brooke Stamnes led the charge in the second set with six kills and only two errors in 11 total attacks. Sophomore Samara Brown took over the dominance in the third set as she slammed down nine kills in 13 attempts with only one attack error.
Stamnes followed up her 12-kill, 7-dig performance Friday night against Savannah State with 13 kills and eight digs against SCSU. Brown also had 13 kills and eight digs. Sophomore Alyssa Pitt had another effective day at the net with six kill, no attack errors, two blocks and a .500 hitting percentage.
“We passed well tonight, but we worked a lot with our hitters on what shots are available for them,” said Clifton. “Our hitters are getting smarter with the ball. They are starting to see the block a little bit better, and they are starting to see the court better. They are not going in with a predetermined idea of what type of shot they have to hit. They are just seeing what is available and making the right decision.”
S.C. State had its best chance against the Aggies in the first set. The Bulldogs took a 21-19 lead on a Brown ball handling error. But the Bulldogs, who posted only a .048 hitting percentage, began to hurt themselves. Two attack errors and a service error gave the Aggies a 22-21 lead. SCSU tied the game on a Liz Martino service error as the teams went back-and-forth before Stamnes eventually put the Aggies on the brink of a first-set win with an excellent set by Martino, leading to a cross-court swing and kill to give N.C. A&T a 24-23 lead.
Brianna Daffney tied it for the Bulldogs before a thunderous kill by Pitt and an attack error from Kirby Anderson gave the Aggies the first set. N.C. A&T's superb hitting assisted in a 5-1 run to end the second set while the Aggies had their best set of the season in terms of hitting percentage as they posted a .387 in the third.
“We've been talking about hitting hard and hitting hard what's available,” said Clifton. “Sometimes we got lucky, and we were able to hit the ball harder than it was able to be defended.”
Anderson and Kiana Stone led the Bulldogs with seven kills apiece.
