EAST GREENSBORO – After dropping a heartbreaker Friday night in the season opener, North Carolina A&T bounced back with its first volleyball win of the season as they downed Bethune-Cookman in straight sets (25-18, 25-12, 25-15) Saturday at Moore Gymnasium.
"It's always good to get a W against a rivalry school," A&T coach Hal Clifton said. "I thought we played a lot better this morning. We played a little bit cleaner. We took care of some of the easier balls that we didn't take care of last night."
Naiya Sawtelle (Stuart, Fla.) led the Aggies with a match-high 19 kills and a .417 hitting percentage. Hannah Howell (St. Louis Park, Minn.) recorded a match-high 11 digs and added eight kills with a .238 hitting percentage.
"I was trying to play hard," Sawtelle said. "I think last night I had my jitters a little, but today I came out with a better mindset, trying to attack the blocks and attack the weaker parts of the defense."
A&T began to find those weaknesses midway through the first set. A 5-0 Aggies run started with a B-CU service error and ended with a kill by Maya Johnson (Austin, Texas) to take an 18-11 lead. BCU did cut the lead to three points, 20-17, forcing an Aggie timeout.
Following the timeout, the Aggies outscored the Wildcats 5-1 to win the first set as Howell had two kills and a service ace during the spurt. Sawtelle recorded seven kills and a .385 hitting percentage in the opening set.
A&T took total control of the match the rest of the way. The Aggies grabbed a 17-7 lead fueled by four kills from Sawtelle during that span. B-CU scored the next three points, however, before the Aggies scored three straight points of their own with the aid of two Wildcat attack errors to take a 20-10 lead.
After an Alisha Callender kill for the Wildcats, the Aggies closed the set on a 5-1 run as freshman Chiara Napoli (Saint-Raphael, France) scored on two aces to aid the effort.
A&T took a 13-3 lead in the third set. The Wildcats got to within seven twice from that point, including a 4-0 run that cut the Aggies lead to 22-15. But a 3-0 run highlighted by a Mallory Porcher (Orlando, Fla.) ended the set and the match.
Jasmine Moore led the Wildcats with seven kills, and Alleah Dallas recorded a match-high five blocks, including four block assists.
Johnson (Austin, Texas) and Liselotte Spoormakers (De Mortel Netherlands) each added five kills, and Johnson posted a .667 hitting percentage. Addy Warfield (Winter Springs, Fla.) recorded a match-high 19 assists and added four digs. Napoli added 12 assists, four digs and two kills.
