GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T volleyball team went the distance to notch its first home win of the season in a 3-2 victory against Norfolk State in the finale of the Spartan-Aggie Invitational, Saturday evening at Moore Gymnasium.
The Aggies (2-5) won by set scores of 25-19, 25-16, and 15-11 in the second, fourth and fifth sets. The Spartans won the first set 25-22 and the third set 25-15.
With the match tied at two, A&T got off to a 5-2 start to open the fifth set before the Spartans called a timeout. NSU cut A&T's lead to 8-6 but the Aggies fueled a 4-1 run pushing their advantage to 13-7. The Spartans managed to stick around and slice the lead to 13-11 but A&T captured the next two points for the win.
Senior Brooke Stamnes posted her 24th career double-double in the win with 19 kills and 13 digs. Sophomore Samara Brown finished with 14 kills and eight digs, while sophomore Alyssa Pitt rounded out the double-figure kills for A&T with 10.
Freshman Kayla Finnerty posted a match-high 40 assists and senior Ashley Johnson tallied 17 digs. Defensively, the Aggies recorded a season-high 60 digs and 11 blocks against the Spartans.
Angie Darcus led NSU with 14 kills ahead of Dominique Parker who recorded nine. Alex Irizarry tallied 19 digs and Darcy Moore led the Spartans in assists with 35.
Earlier in the day, the Aggies faced a 3-0 (25-22, 17, 11) setback to cross-town rival UNCG (8-2).
Brown finished with a team-high eight kills ahead of Stamnes who posted seven. Junior Liz Martino and Finnerty each recorded 11 assists. Johnson led A&T in digs with 12.
The Spartans were led by Ashley Muench who tallied 18 kills and hit .556 during the match. Allison Penner finished with 35 assists while Katherine Santiago added 15 digs.
A&T faces High Point on Tuesday, Sept. 15 in a non-conference match on the road at 7 p.m.
