EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T put its young volleyball team on the court Tuesday night against an ACC opponent and played a solid match despite losing in three to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (25-20, 19, 20) at Moore Gymnasium. 

"I thought we played a really good match," said A&T coach Hal Clifton. "I thought we played much better today than we did this past weekend. 

I thought we competed very well in a tough environment. Wake Forest is a really solid team. They are young but big. They've got some good outside hitters that can put the ball away. It was a good match overall. I thought we had some moments we were really into the set, but we made unforced errors on some off balls that if we make those plays, maybe comes up a little bit different."

Maya Johnson (Austin, Texas) led with a match-high five blocks, including a match-high two solo blocks, and added four kills with a .375 hitting percentage.

"Maya is sneaking good," Clifton said. "People don't see her a lot, but she's up there. She gets a lot of things done. She presses very well; she's quick off the ground, reaches with her hands, and has good eye vision. Super excited with what Maya is doing."

Wake took a 17-9 lead in the first set, but the Aggies scored seven straight points, which included two block assists from Johnson and sophomore Naiya Sawtelle (Stuart, Fla.). The Aggies eventually tied the set at 19 on a kill from graduate Liselott Spoormakers. The Demon Deacons scored the next two points on a kill from Payton Suess and a Johnson attack error. But a solo block from Sawtelle moved the Aggies to within one, 21-20, before Wake Forest scored four straight to end the set. 

Set No. 2 was a set of runs. The Demon Deacons took an early 4-0 lead before the Aggies scored the next three. Later in the set, the Aggies scored three straight to tie the set at 9 before Wake responded by outscoring the Aggies 10-3 to take a 19-12 lead. The Aggies could not mount another run. They did go on a 4-1 spurt to make it a 24-19 set, but a Sawtelle attack error gave the Deacs a 2-0 match lead.   

In the third set, the two teams fought to a 13-13 tie on a Paige Crawford service error and a Hannah Howell (St. Louis Park, Minn.) service ace. But four straight points from the Deacs, leading to an Aggies timeout. The timeout was effective. The Aggies outscored the Deacs 3-1 after the stoppage in play as freshman Chiara Napoli (Saint-Raphael, France) and Johnson recorded kills to cut Wake's lead to 18-16. 

But Wake quickly responded with a 4-0 to put the Aggies on the brink of losing the match at 22-16. Spoormakers helped the Aggies fight back with a kill and a block assist along with Johnson. But the Aggies could get no closer than four the rest of the way as Howell scored on a kill to cut Wake's lead to 24-20. But Lauren Strain secured the win for Wake with a kill. 

Suess led Wake Forest with 13 kills, and Rian Baker added 32 assists. Sawtelle had eight kills and led the team with 10 digs. Addy Warfield (Winter Springs, Fla.) led the team with 11 assists, seven digs and four kills. Howell added seven kills and five digs.