EAST GREENSBORO – On Sunday, something uncharacteristic happened to the North Carolina A&T Aggies volleyball team. They got off to a slow start in a fifth set.
The unusual occurrence helped the Northeastern Huskies earn a five-set Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) win (23-25, 25-18, 25-16, 19-25, 15-7) over the Aggies at Moore Gymnasium.
On an afternoon when she was honored on Senior Day, Mallory Porcher finished with 11 kills and six blocks, all assisted. She had only three attack errors on 23 attempts to post a .348 hitting percentage. A&T also honored Addy Warfield, who will leave A&T with more than 1,500 assists and has a chance to finish her career top 5 all-time in the statistical category.
However, the day's excitement was not enough to lift the Aggies to victory. A&T (9-14, 5-8 CAA) lost for the first time in four matches. Winning five-set matches became an Aggie staple during the winning streak.
The Aggies came in winners of four straight five-setters, and they won three during their four-match winning streak. Not only did the Aggies win five-setters, but it became common to see A&T get off to fast starts in those situations. But Sunday saw the Aggies fall behind 8-1 partly because of three Huskie service aces. After that, the Aggies never got any closer than six the rest of the way.
"We started off slow in the fifth set, which is not natural for us," said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We usually embrace those fifth setters, but we were not able to come out of the gates there. But I'm so proud of how we fought after being down 2-1. Winning the fourth set the way we did and getting to the fifth set says a lot about our character and a lot about our growth."
After rallying to win the first set behind a 5-0 run, the Aggies did have some setbacks in sets two and three. They hit a combined .054 over those two sets to fall behind 2-1 in the match. But an Aggies team who has shown a comeback spirit all season came out determined in the fourth. A Maya Johnson kill helped the Aggies take a 10-4 lead.
The Huskies did get the lead to three, 16-13, on a Laura Seeger kill. Clifton called timeout, and it seemed to settle his team. A&T scored four consecutive points out of the timeout, mainly behind three Huskie attack errors, to take a 20-13 lead. The Huskies (10-10, 7-4 CAA) never got any closer than five after that point, leading to the fifth set.
"We're still learning, we're still competing, so I'm disappointed that we lost, but not overall disappointed in some of the growth we made today," said Clifton. "Northeastern is a good team. They're in the middle of the pack in the CAA. I felt we held our own and gave them a hard-fought match."
Erica Staunton led the Huskies with 19 kills. A&T's Hannah Howell and Naiya Sawtelle had 11 kills apiece. Meanwhile, Chiara Napoli posted her sixth double-double of the season as she ended the afternoon with 21 assists, 16 digs and five blocks, all assisted.
