GREENSBORO – Saturday at Moore Gymnasium, North Carolina A&T played like a volleyball team trying to play volleyball in Towson, Md., in mid-November in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Volleyball Championship Tournament no matter who is in their way.
The Aggies welcomed the reigning four-time CAA champion Towson Tigers to Moore on Saturday and took them to five sets before losing 25-10, 16-25, 28-30, 25-17, 15-11.
A&T dropped to 8-13 overall and 6-7 in CAA play. The loss drops A&T into a three-way tie for eighth place in the conference. Eight teams earn a berth in the CAA tournament in November. Towson remains atop the conference at 18-5 overall and 11-2 in league play.
But for much of the fifth set, the Aggies had Towson on upset alert. The Aggies took a 3-0 lead in the fifth set, forcing the Tigers to call timeout. Moments later, the Aggies took a 10-7 lead on a Nina Cajic attack error, leading to Towson taking its second and final timeout of the set.
Towson came out of the timeout and scored seven straight points that included three A&T attack errors, three kills and a service ace from Sydney Stewart. Towson created two of those A&T attack errors with blocks.
The 7-0 Towson run gave the Tigers match and set point before junior Maya Johnson kept the Aggies going by zooming an attack by Towson middle blocker Aayinde Smith. But A&T outside hitter Naiya Sawtelle followed with a service error as Towson improved to 4-0 all-time against A&T.
"I thought we played a really good match today," said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We just didn't close out in the fifth. Up 10-7 and didn't finish. I'm a little disappointed with that, but I'm still really happy overall."
Towson opened the match like a team that has played in the last 10 CAA tournament championship matches. The Tigers hit a blistering .700 in the first set to close out the Aggies quickly. But the Aggies had an impressive recovery.
They hit .441 in the second set. A 7-2 spurt gave A&T a 20-14 lead in the second, and the Aggies were never really threatened from there. The Aggies put themselves on the brink of upsetting the No. 1 team in the conference with a third-set win.
Trailing 20-18 in the fourth, the Aggies scored four straight points, culminating in a Laurel Rogers ace to take a 22-20 lead. Towson then scored four straight to grab set point at 24-22 before a Sawtelle kill and an attack error from Irbe Lazda tied the set at 24.
A&T took the lead on another Sawtelle kill before the two teams fought to a 28-28 tie on a block assist from A&T's impressive freshman combo of Samaya Wesson and Kaili Doctor. Doctor continued to play solid with back-to-back kills to end the set to give the Aggies a 2-1 match lead before Towson won the final two sets.
"We went toe-to-toe with the top team in the conference," said Clifton. "I'm really proud of how well we kept our composure in the third. That was a big set win."
Doctor recorded her first career double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs to go along with two blocks. She also had two blocks and two aces. Sawtelle secured double-figure kills for the 12th straight match as she finished with 14 kills, nine digs and three blocks, including two solo blocks.
Wesson had four kills and five blocks. Chiara Napoli had five kills, no attack errors, 32 assists, seven digs, two blocks and one ace. Victoria Barrett led the Tigers with 19 kills.
