EAST GREENSBORO (September 28, 2018) –There was a moment Friday night during North Carolina A&T's volleyball match against Florida A&M where the Aggies had their impressive Moore Gymnasium crowd, momentum and a fired-up team thrusting them toward winning their conference opener.

Unfortunately, that moment was overshadowed by a match filled with too many attack and service errors as the Florida A&M Rattlers defeated the Aggies in four sets, 25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 25-17, on N.C. A&T's home floor.

Sophomore Courteney Pitt led the Aggies with 17 kills and eight digs. Her totals were marred by 14 attack errors. As a team, the Aggies made 34 attack errors and 15 service errors. Both numbers were season highs for N.C. A&T (5-9, 0-1 MEAC). Those miscues led the Aggies to lose the first two sets and things were not looking good in the third.

Florida A&M (2-12, 1-0 MEAC) aimed for a sweep of the Aggies as they took a 16-11 lead in the third set. Yet, the Aggies started to chip away at that lead. A Leila Haynesworth kill followed by a Florida A&M attack error cut the Rattlers lead to three. The Aggies got to within one, 18-17, on a block assist from Makaylah Elliot and Pitt.

But the Rattlers started stretching the lead out again. After an Elliot made it a 20-19 set in favor of FAMU, the Rattlers ran off four straight points that culminated with block assists from Aybuke Kocabiyik and Ilayda Nurkan to give FAMU set and match point at 24-19.

Then things got exciting with Haynesworth leading the excitement charge. A Haynesworth kill was followed by a kill from redshirt freshman Fatimah Shabazz to cut the lead to 24-21. Haynesworth then sliced another kill across the floor to force a FAMU timeout. The timeout didn't help the Rattlers. They returned to the floor only to commit a ball handling and attack error to help the Aggies tie the set at 24.

Haynesworth gave the Aggies the lead with a kill and the Moore Gymnasium crowd erupted after block assists from Shabazz and freshman Shaylynn Hall gave the Aggies the set after scoring a thrilling seven unanswered points. Haynesworth, Shabazz and Pitt scored six points apiece in the set with Haynesworth recording six kills and Shabazz posting four kills no attack errors in eight attempts to go along with two blocks. Pitt had three kills and three blocks in the set.

The Aggies were hoping to use their third-set comeback to force a fifth set. N.C. A&T did take a 5-2 lead on an Andrea Laboy-Rivera service ace and they tied the match at 9 on a FAMU attack error. But the Rattlers ran off five straight points to take a 14-9 lead. The Aggies never recovered. The closest the Aggies got after the run was four points. FAMU closed out the match on a 3-0 run to come away with the road win.

Haynesworth added 13 kills for the Aggies while senior Megan Wiggins had a double-double with 35 assists and 17 digs. Elliot finished with five blocks. Kocabiyik led the Rattlers with 10 kills and a .421 hitting percentage.

The Aggies will try to get their first conference win on Sunday when Bethune-Cookman comes to Moore Gymnasium Sunday at 1 p.m.