EAST GREENSBORO – A disheartening second-set loss which led to a difficult third set to play, helped The Tribe of William & Mary earn a Colonial Athletic Association weekend split with the North Carolina A&T Aggies volleyball team Sunday afternoon at Moore Gymnasium.
Led by Eleanor Stothoff's 14 kills, William & Mary defeated the Aggies in straight sets (25-22, 28-26, 25-12) after losing to A&T Saturday afternoon at Moore. The Aggies are 5-13 on the season and 1-7 in the CAA. The Tribe improved to 9-7 and 4-4 in league play.
A&T sophomore Naiya Sawtelle did follow up her career-high 27-kill performance from Saturday with 23 kills on Sunday, which marked a three-set career high. Sawtelle finished the weekend with 50 kills, a .351 hitting percentage, nine blocks (three solos) and 58.5 points. Sophomore Morgan Allen added a career-high 21 digs.
Despite Sawtelle's eight-kill outing in the first set, including back-to-back kills that got the Aggies to within two, 22-20, the Aggies could not quite pull out set No. 1. After an Aggies attack error, a Hannah Howell kill got the Aggies back to within two before Stothoff's kill gave The Tribe set point at 24-21. Graduate Liselotte Spoormakers kept the Aggies alive for a moment with a kill, but another Stothoff score on a kill ended the set.
That moved the match to the second set, where the Aggies captured a 22-18 advantage on Spoormakers kill. The Tribe scored the next two points to force an Aggies timeout, but all seemed well when Sawtelle, who had nine kills in the set, smacked another ball to the floor to give A&T a 23-20 advantage.
Sawtelle and senior setter Addy Warfield switched roles to move the Aggies into position to claim set point. Sawtelle assisted Warfield on a quick-push kill over the net to make it 24-22. But kills from Taylor Burrell and Stothoff tied the set before Howell gave the Aggies set point again on a kill.
The Tribe claimed set point on consecutive kills from Burrell before a Stothoff attack error moved the set back into a tie at 26. But Stothoff made amends as her back-to-back kills gave The Tribe the set.
"Losing that set changed the momentum of the match," said A&T coach Hal Clifton. "When you're up and leading a set, and the other team battles back and finds a way to pull the set out from underneath you, it kind of takes the wind out of your sails. Sometimes for younger teams, it's hard to recover from that. That kind of hurt us going into that third set.
A&T had eight kills as opposed to 13 attack errors. Plus, William & Mary recorded eight blocks and ended the set on a 10-3 run to win the set and the match.
"I still think we gave pretty good effort throughout the match," said Clifton. "But in a conference that is so tight, just the little things here and there are what makes the separation. We're learning that we have to play better, cleaner every day, every match and every point."
