North Carolina A&T (8-1) vs. East Carolina (4-7)
Date: Friday, March 26
Time: 4 p.m.
Facility: Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum

AGGIES OVERVIEW: North Carolina A&T looks to even the season series at East Carolina Friday at 4 p.m. after the Pirates defeated the Aggies 3-1 in the season opener on Feb. 5. After the ECU loss, the Aggies ripped off eight straight wins, all sweeps in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) competition.        

Junior right side hitter Fatimah Shabazz leads the MEAC with 3.64 kills per set and ranks third with a .364 hitting percentage. Senior outside hitter Courteney Pitt ranks seventh with 2.54 kills per set and sixth with a .312 hitting percentage.

Senior setter Edie Brewer ranks fourth with 6.96 assists per set. She leads the conference with 0.75 service aces per set and 10th with 2.46 digs per set. Junior libero Andrea Laboy-Rivera is tied fourth with 3.25 digs per set.

The Aggies lead the MEAC in hitting percentage (.303), kills per set (13.54) and assists per set (12.46). Defensively, N.C. A&T leads the MEAC in opponents hitting percentage (.047). The Aggies are second in digs per set (13.86), and they are fourth in blocks per set (1.54). 

 Hal Clifton leads N.C. A&T. Clifton is in his 10th season in Aggieland. When he arrived as the Aggies head coach, N.C. A&T only had five players. In the past three seasons, the Aggies have not finished below .500. The last time N.C. A&T finished below .500 in the MEAC under Clifton was 2012. Last season, he led the Aggies to the MEAC southern division title at 13-1, and the Aggies made a postseason appearance in the National Invitational Volleyball Championships. 

Clifton earned coach of the year in the MEAC in 2019. He has a 52-42 record (.553) in the last four seasons, including a 34-8 (.810) MEAC record over the same span.                                     

EAST CAROLINA PIRATES OVERVIEW: ECU defeated Davison on March 21 and will close out their regular season against the Aggies. Sydney Kleinman leads the Pirates with 3.38 kills per set. She had 15 kills and 14 digs in the last matchup against the Aggies at Moore Gymnasium. Bri Wood, who is averaging 3.36 kills per set, had 15 kills and 13 digs in the match at Moore. Alisi Motuapuaka leads the team with 5.98 assists per set. She had 40 assists in the four-set win over the Aggies in February.  

Camryn Allen is averaging 4.31 digs per set. She posted 12 against the Aggies the first time around. S'Mara Riley had six block assists versus the Aggies in Moore. She averages 1.18 per set.

First-year head coach Alder Augustin leads East Carolina. Augustin spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin. During his tenure there, Augustin guided SFA guide to 129 victories, three Southland Conference regular-season titles, two conference tournament championships, two undefeated league campaigns, and a pair of NCAA tournament appearances in the last five years. ECU named him head coach last June.         

MEAC WEEKLY AWARDS: The Aggies have received six weekly awards this season from four different players. Brewer leads the way with three. She won setter of the week in back-to-back weeks (Feb. 8, 15). She later won co-setter of the week on March 1. 

Laboy-Rivera won defensive specialist of the week on Feb. 8, and Hall followed that honor with a defensive specialist honor of her own on Feb. 15. Shabazz earned player of the week from the MEAC on Feb. 22.  

CAREER WATCH: Pitt is now second all-time in school history with 1,036 kills. 

Brewer ranks in the top-10 in school history in five different statistical categories, including kills (678, 10th), assists (2,038, 4th), digs (744, 8th), service aces (130, 5th) and block assists (150, 6th).