GREENSBORO (September 6, 2016) – North Carolina A&T volleyball lost a hard-fought battle to East Carolina at Moore Gymnasium Tuesday night as the Pirates claimed a 3-0 victory (28-26, 25-23, 25-18) to advance to 5-0 while the Aggies drop to 1-5.

Samara Brown continued to lead the Aggies in kills, posting 16 Tuesday night while Alyssa Pitt led the team in hitting percentage (.500) by slamming down seven kills against only one attack error in 12 attempts.  Freshman Christa Wilson tied Pitt with seven kills and hit .227 on the night.

In the first set, neither team ever held more than a three-point lead.  A kill from Brown gave the Aggies a chance to win the set as they led 26-25. But three straight kills from the Pirates secured the set win.  Brown came away with seven kills in the first set.  T'keyah Davis had two service aces to start her night, adding a third in the second.

“We played really good defense and made them work for a lot of points, and we forced them to make some errors,” said Aggies head coach Hal Clifton.  “We served very aggressively and were able to hit some seams trying to slow down their offense and keep them out of system.  We had a chance to close out the first set which would have been huge, but we are still young in certain areas of the game and we are still learning.  You can't fault the effort from our players.  Our misses were aggressive and we are getting to where we need to be.”

The Aggies hit a respectable .265 in the second set, where after trailing 14-10, got to within one at 20-19 on a kill from Wilson. ECU extended the lead to three, 24-21, on a Carena Meadows service error.  The Aggies again fought valiantly with a Pitt kill and a service ace from Davis to make it 24-23. The set ended and the Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the match on an attack error from the Aggies. Pitt scored on all four of her attack attempts and had a solo block in the set. 

A couple key runs by the Pirates proved too tough for the Aggies to come back from in the final set.  The team still hit well above their season average in Set 3 (.111). The Aggies .187 hitting percentage on the night was a season high.  

 “They came back and served a little tougher.  We still had the matchups, but they played a little cleaner and we just weren't able to get out of a couple of rotations quick enough," said Clifton.  "Those two runs set us back quickly.  We still put together a solid match against a strong opponent, so we are pretty excited about where we were tonight and we will just keep building off that going into the weekend."

N.C. A&T resumes play this weekend in the annual Spartan-Aggies Invitational co-hosted by UNC Greensboro.  The Aggies start the tournament with a match at Moore Gymnasium against the Hampton Pirates at 7 p.m., on Friday. They face UNC Greensboro at 11 a.m., on Saturday at the Spartans' Fleming Gymnasium.  The tournament concludes back in Moore Gymnasium Saturday night for a showdown against the Radford Highlanders at 7.