GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T saw its volleyball season end Sunday with a highly competitive 3-1 loss (27-25, 27-25, 19-25, 25-20) to the Campbell Fighting Camels at Moore Gymnasium. Conversely, four Aggies saw their A&T careers end, as the A&T volleyball program and the athletics department honored Morgan Allen, Naiya Sawtelle, Liselotte Spoormakers and Arie Walker on Senior Day before the match.
Each senior did well on the court. Sawtelle secured the 14th 20-plus kills match of her career, recording 20 with a .333 hitting percentage, four digs, and three blocks, including two solos and two service aces. Meanwhile, Allen posted her eighth career 20-plus digs match with 20. Spoormakers added three kills and three blocks, and Walker earned her first career start.
After the pre-match Senior Day ceremony, the Aggies and the Camels followed up their entertaining five-setter from Saturday with another back-and-forth seesaw affair where the Aggies could not come away with set wins down the stretch for the second straight day. But a first-set win by the Aggies would have been extremely impressive, considering the Aggies trailed 22-15.
The Aggies still trailed 23-18 when Sawtelle took a set from sophomore Chiara Napoli and powered the ball to the floor to cut the Camels lead to four. Napoli and junior Maya Johnson followed with a block assist before the Camels obtained set point at 24-20 with a Valerie Estrada service error. But a Gwen Wolkow service error kept the Aggies from dropping the set and sparked a 4-0 spurt from A&T as Sawtelle scored on an ace, freshman Kaili Doctor scored on a kill and Sawtelle scored on a kill to tie the set at 24.
Chloe Cook helped Campbell regain the lead with a kill, but A&T answered with a block assist from Johnson and Napoli to tie it at 25-25, but another Cook kill followed by an Emily Campe kill gave the Camels the set.
A&T needed another rally in the second set as the Camels took a 22-19 lead on a Wolkow kill. Sawtelle fired back with a kill, followed by a Napoli ace to pull the Aggies to within one. The two teams traded points before a Madison Sanabria attack error gave the Camels set point at 24-22. But the Aggies net play continued to be stellar.
A Johnson kill and a block assist from Jonnson and freshman Samaya Wesson tied the set at 24. But like the first set, the Aggies could never make it to set point. A Sawtelle kill matched a Cook kill. However, the Camels took a 2-0 match lead as Wolkow scored on consecutive kills.
There was no A&T rally needed in the third set. A Wesson kill gave the Aggies an 18-12 lead. That lead grew to seven, 23-16, on a Napoli ace. The Aggies captured set point at 24-17 on a Doctor kill before the Camels scored two consecutive points. But Sawtelle aided in helping the Aggies win the final set of her A&T career with a kill because the Camels used an 8-1 run to take a 24-18 lead in the fourth.
Kills from Spoormakers and Doctor cut the lead to four, but the Aggies season ended on an attack error. A&T's future looked promising throughout the season, including Sunday. Doctor, a three-time CAA rookie of the week winner, finished with nine kills, five digs and a block. Sanabria had seven kills and three blocks, and Johnson finished with five kills and eight blocks. Melody Paige led the Camels with 11 kills, six aces and six blocks, scoring 20.5 points.
Meanwhile, Sawtelle will end her career with 1,207 kills, the second most in A&T history. Sawtelle will not use her final year of eligibility at A&T because the university does not offer her graduate degree program. She will graduate with eight conference weekly honors and 27 double-doubles and could lead the CAA in a few statistical categories by season's end.
A&T's season ends at 8-18 overall and 6-12 in conference play. The Aggies had to face the top-3 CAA teams over the season's final three two-match series weekends, taking two of those matches to five sets. Campbell is headed to the CAA tournament, Nov. 16-18, in Towson, Md., after finishing the season 16-12 overall and 13-5 in league play.
