EAST GREENSBORO – After dropping the first two sets, North Carolina A&T rallied to force a fifth set, but Elon held on and beat the Aggies in five (25-22, 25-20, 18-25, 22-25, 15-8) Saturday afternoon at Moore Gymnasium. A&T played in first first-ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) match. The Aggies dropped to 4-7 overall, while the Phoenix went to 3-7 overall and 1-0 in league play.
Hannah Howell (St. Louis Park, Minn.) recorded 14 kills and 14 digs for her third double-double of the season and the fourth of her career.
"It was competitive as we thought it would be," said A&T coach Hal Clifton. "We figured it would be a battle. We had some errors in the first set, but our kids really wanted to play well, and that kind of slowed us at the start. After that, they kind of settled in. They relaxed, and they started playing. We worked it to a fifth set. We are really proud of their effort."
Elon hit the ball well in the first two sets recording a .370 hitting percentage compared to the Aggies .274, but in the next two sets, A&T outhit the Phoenix .276 to .137.
The Aggies got on track thanks to a 6-0 run that took them from an 11-8 deficit to a 14-11 lead. It was a lead A&T never relinquished. Elon cut the lead to a point, 15-14, but the Aggies outscored the Phoenix 5-1 in a spurt that included two kills from Liselotte Spoormakers to increase the lead to 20-15.
The Phoenix cut the lead to 20-17, but A&T again went on a 5-1 run, with the latest run ending the set and cutting the Elon match lead to 2-1. A&T's ending run featured two kills from Hannah Howell. Spoormakers went 3-for-4 for a .750 hitting percentage during the set, and Naiya Sawtelle added four kills.
After the Aggies took a 9-5 lead in the fourth set, Elon got to within one at 14-13 before a block assist from Spoormakers and Maya Johnson, a Johnson service ace and a Howell kill gave the Aggies a 17-13 advantage. A&T increased the lead to 23-16, fueled by three kills from Sawtelle, but Elon rallied. Clara LaRue had two kills during a 6-1 run by the Phoenix to move to within two at 24-22. But a Johnson kill from Napoli gave the Aggies set win, forcing a set No. 5.
A&T hit .357 during the fourth set. Mallory Porcher (2-for-2) and Chiara Napoli had two kills and no attack errors on two attempts, and Sawtelle had nine kills in the fourth.
A Johnson-Howell block assist gave the Aggies a 5-4 lead in the final set, but Elon sprinted to a 9-5 lead on a 5-0 run. However, A&T did recover a bit after calling a timeout. Following the timeout, a kill apiece from Spoormakers and Howell cut the lead to 9-7, but Elon scored six of the final seven points to win the set and match.
Sawtelle recorded a match-high 23 kills and added six digs. Spoormakers recorded a career-high nine kills. She also had two blocks, while Morgan Allen (Charlotte, N.C.) added a match-high 20 digs and eight assists. Johnson recorded seven blocks, including three solo blocks.
"Both sides had to put up a great fight," said Aggies libero Morgan Allen. "Overall, we played lights-out defense, and I think that kept us in the game. We kept our momentum strong on those long rallies and pulled them out. That's what kept us going though out the whole match."
Napoli recorded her second double-double this season with a career-high 29 assists and to go along with 10 digs. She also added a career-high five service aces, tied a career-high seven kills and had two blocks, including a solo block.
"The fun part of Chiara is that she's only been a setter internationally," Clifton said. "This is her first time hitting, blocking, passing, defending and setting. Watching her growth is going to be pretty incredible. The things that she's already doing as a freshman, she's going to do really well. She's following in the footsteps of what Edie (Brewer) was able to do. Chiara is still new to a lot of those touches. She's been a sponge, and we are really happy with her progress."
Leah Daniel led Elon with 13 kills, while Haylie Clark recorded a match-high 41 assists.
