CHARLESTON, S.C. – North Carolina A&T volleyball is fighting hard to qualify for postseason play. It was evident Saturday afternoon at the College of Charleston's TD Arena. But despite their best efforts, the Aggies lost to the College of Charleston Cougars in a five-game thriller (22-25, 25-19, 25-22, 21-25, 16-14).
The Aggies are 9-16 overall and 5-10 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), and the Cougars improved to 13-15 overall and 8-7 in league play. A&T came into the afternoon a match in eighth place, a match ahead of Stony Brook in the CAA standings. The top 8 teams qualify for the tournament. Therefore, an Aggies win would have clinched them a spot in next week's CAA tournament in Towson, Md. (Nov. 17-19) because Elon defeated Stony Brook 3-0 at home.
Saturday's results keep Stony Brook a match behind the Aggies in the standings as A&T remains in the driver's seat. A win by A&T over College of Charleston on Sunday will send them to Towson. However, A&T could also lose on Sunday and still get in. The only way Stony Brook advances is through an A&T loss and a win over Elon on Sunday.
A&T came close to wrapping up a postseason berth on Saturday. Despite falling behind 7-2 in the fifth set, the Aggies rallied to take a 12-11 lead on a Hannah Howell. The Cougars regained the lead at 13, but a Sawtelle kill and an attack error from Lexi Wierzbicki gave the Aggies set and match point at 14-13.
But Wierzbicki kept the Cougars in the match with a kill. A block assist from Charleston's Logan Pope and Emma Falk gave the Cougars match and set point. Gabi Bailey's kill won the Cougars the match and assured the Aggies would have to wait a day to find out their CAA tournament fate.
"We just came up one play short there at the end of the fifth set," said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We battled back down 8-4 at the switch. We fought to give ourselves a match point when we could have easily folded. We kept our composure against a very talented Charleston team. Even though we lost, I feel like it was one of our more complete matches."
Four Aggies recorded double-doubles, the most since four players recorded double-doubles against Western Carolina on Sept. 20, 2019. Sawtelle led the way with a career-high 28 kills and added 13 digs for her eighth double-double this season and the 17th of her career. She also had a whopping 76 total attacks, a career high.
Howell added her seventh double-double this season with 15 kills and 13 digs and had a .342 hitting percentage. Setters Addy Warfield and Chiara Napoli also went for double-doubles. Warfield posted 22 assists and 11 digs for her third double-double of the season, and Napoli recorded her seventh double-double with 20 assists and 10 digs.
Morgan Allen came close to making it five double-doubles with 26 digs and eight assists. Maya Johnson had five kills and five blocks.
The Aggies came out blazing, hitting .303 in the first set and using an 8-1 run to take control of the set at 22-18. The Cougars cut A&T's lead to 23-22 before a Howell kill, and a Napoli service ace gave the Aggies a 1-0 match lead.
College of Charleston hit .337 over the following two sets to take a 2-1 lead before the Aggies bounced back to force a fifth set. The Aggies took a 19-13 on a block assist from Johnson and Liselott Spoormakers. The Cougars rattled off three straight to force an Aggies timeout.
A&T responded with a 4-1 spurt that included kills from Sawtelle and Howell to take a 23-17 lead. After an A&T service error, Howell gave the Aggies set point with another kill. Two kills and an ace cut the Aggies lead to 24-21 before Sawtelle forced set No. 5 with a kill.
"I thought we played a very good match today," said Clifton. "I'm proud of what we did on the court today. We showed patience when needed and aggression when called for."
