GREENSBORO (August 30, 2016) – North Carolina A&T volleyball lost 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-23) to the Elon Phoenix in their season home opener Tuesday night in Moore Gymnasium.  Senior outside hitter Te'Borah Hawkins-Hollingsworth ended the evening with six kills, no attack errors in 10 attack attempts for a .600 hitting percentage.

Five of Hawkins-Hollingsworth's six kills came in the third set as she had no errors in five attack attempts. 

“I thought we played pretty well tonight, we just had trouble putting together a full set up until the third set,” said Aggies head coach Hal Clifton.  “The third set is when we started to get relaxed and trusted our passing technique and battled back.”

While the Aggies had trouble finding their rhythm in the first two sets, they came alive in Set 3, grabbing an early 8-2 lead. The Phoenix fought back to tie the set at 8 and eventually took a 21-16 lead over the Aggies. A Hawkins-Hollingsworth kills and a service ace by sophomore Kayla Finnerty helped the Aggies move to within two, however.

The Phoenix regained the momentum and were on the brink of ending the match as they took a 24-19 lead. The Aggies refused to quit. A kill by junior Alyssa Pitt and a service ace by Liz Martino cut the lead to three. After an Elon attack error, a kill by Hawkins-Hollingsworth electrified the crowd with a powerful swing to cut the Phoenix lead to 24-23. But a kill from Michelle Klein prevented the N.C. A&T from advancing to a fourth set.

Pitt posted four kills with only two attack errors in seven attempts in the final set to round out the evening hitting .286 with seven kills and a dig.  Junior Samara Brown produced nine kills with two digs and a serving ace.  Senior setter Liz Martino led the team with 19 assists.

Errors proved costly for N.C. A&T as the night wore on as they totaled 22 attacking errors, five serving errors and three ball handling errors.  For the Phoenix, Klein had eight kills in 13 attempts with no errors (.615) while Kam Terry lead her team with 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage to contribute to the teams overall .307 hitting percentage.

“Overall, we were not bad, but we have to focus on sustaining our energy and our technique,” said Clifton.

The Aggies are back in action at Moore Gymnasium on Tues., Sept. 6 as they take on East Carolina at 6 p.m.