EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T began its Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) volleyball era with back-to-back losses to Elon as the Phoenix followed up its Saturday victory with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-20, 19-25, 26-24) win over the Aggies Sunday afternoon at Moore Gymnasium.
Naiya Sawtelle (Stuart, Fla.) recorded a match-high 22 kills and tied a match-high with six blocks, including one solo block. Over the weekend, she averaged 5.00 kills, 1.11 digs and 0.78 blocks with a .228 hitting percentage.
"I've been working a lot in practice about certain swings and trying to get more consistent with high flat and cooling the blocks," Sawtelle said. "I was able to implement that well on this team. But I was trying to give it my all, the best that I can because now that we are in conference, it means a lot more."
The Aggies fell behind in the match 2-0 for the second straight day. But similar to Saturday, the Aggies were able to force a fourth set. After combining for a .183 hitting percentage over the first two sets on Sunday, the Aggies came out swinging and blocking in the third.
They took a 4-1 lead behind back-to-back block assists from Madison Sanabria (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Naiya Sawtelle (Stuart, Fla.). That lead grew to 7-2 as the Sawtelle and Sanabria duo teamed for another block assist. It took a Liselotte Spoormakers (De Mortel, Netherlands) and Sanabria block assist that made it a 10-3 set for the Phoenix to call timeout.
Despite the timeout, the Aggies kept rolling. A 3-0 run fueled by a kill from freshman Sagaia Reilly (Nashville, Tenn.), a kill from Spoormakers and a service ace from freshman Chiara Napoli (Saint-Raphael, France) gave the Aggies a 19-10 lead. Elon did go on a 5-1 run to make it a 23-19 set, but the Aggies forced a Set No. 4 with a kill from sophomore Maya Johnson (Austin, Texas) and a kill from Sawtelle.
Unfortunately, the Aggies could not get to a fifth set despite taking a 9-2 lead in the fourth. Elon fought its way back into the set, but the Aggies still maintained a 17-13 lead thanks to a kill from Spoormakers. But Elon forced the Aggies to take a timeout after a 5-1 spurt brought the Phoenix to within one at 19-18.
After the timeout, the Phoenix tied the match at 19 on a Leah Daniel kill. A&T responded with a 4-1 run behind two kills from Sawtelle to reclaim control at 23-20. The excitment became even more compelling, however, as Elon scored three straight to tie the match.
Sawtelle reclaimed the lead for A&T with a kill, putting the Aggies on the brink of forcing a fifth set at 24-23. But a 3-0 Elon run capped by a block assist from Lily Emlong and Clara LaRue gave the Phoenix the win.
"This one was tougher because we didn't come out on all cylinders," A&T coach Hal Clifton said about the back-to-back heartbreaking losses to Elon. "I'm still happy with the way we competed. Elon was predicated preseason No. 2. Very good program and a very good team, but we were right there with them. A few points here and there, and who knows? We get to a fifth set and toss a coin; you never know what could happen. This one hurt, but I'm still proud of our players."
Daniel led the Phoenix with 17 kills. Haylie Clark added 40 assists and 10 digs.
Match Notes
- After setting a career-high in kills on Saturday, Spoormakers set another career-high with 10 kills and added three blocks with a .444 hitting percentage. She averaged 2.11 kills with a .410 hitting percentage over the two-match weekend.
- Napoli and senior Addy Warfield (Winter Springs, Fla.) recorded 24 assists apiece. Napoli added 10 digs for her second consecutive double-double.
- Mallory Porcher (Orlando, Fla.) had eight kills, and Morgan Allen (Charlotte, N.C.) added 10 digs.
- Nadia Montalbán El-Hiriche (Granada, Spain) tied a match-high with 12 digs.
- Reilly (Nashville, Tenn.) had six kills and no attack errors on eight attempts to record a .750 hitting percentage.
- Sanabria tied a match-high with six blocks.
