GREENSBORO, N.C. – As the rain came pouring down outside of Moore Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, the scene inside of Moore Gymnasium was luminous with remembrance, honors, awareness, and a 3-0 victory (25-19, 10, 15) over the Hampton Pirates in a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) match in front of an impressive home-opener crowd.
A&T held its aneurysm awareness match against the Hampton Pirates on Saturday, with the Pirates participating by wearing aneurysm awareness T-shirts during warmups. A&T held the event in honor of A&T graduate Fatimah Shabazz, a star volleyball player at A&T who fell ill after a Big South tournament volleyball match and later died of a brain aneurysm on Nov. 28, 2021, at the age of 22.
The Aggies not only honored Shabazz, a former first-team All-MEAC performer, by bringing awareness to the ailment that ended her young life, but they capped off the special day by winning their first conference match of the season, winning their home opener and ending a three-match losing streak to improve to 3-8 overall and 1-2 in league play.
"I thought we put together a very solid match today," said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We played with confidence. We handled our first touches pretty well. Our setters did a good job moving the ball around, and our hitters took some big swings. I was glad our offense flowed."
One of those big-swing hitters was Naiya Sawtelle. Sawtelle had a monstrous match. She used her 31 swings to record three-set, season-high 21 kills and a career-best 0.516 hitting percentage. It moves her right next door to the 1,000-career kill mark.
She needs 10 kills during Sunday's match against Hampton to reach the milestone, making her the fourth player in program history to get there. In addition, her 11 digs gave Sawtelle her 22nd career double-double and her third of the season. She added a season-high five service aces to go along with two blocks.
Freshman Kaili Doctor introduced herself to the Moore Gymnasium audience by posting seven kills without an attack error in 14 swings. Junior Maya Johnson did not have an attack error in six swings, finishing with four kills and four blocks, including two solo blocks.
"Defensively, we did a good job limiting their attack, and we made some nice plays in transition," said Clifton.
Hampton (0-5, 0-3 CAA) played well offensively in the first set, posting a .304 hitting percentage. But the Aggies were better, hitting .364. They also used four aces from freshman Valerie Estrada. Back-to-back Estrada aces gave the Aggies set point at 24-17. The Pirates ran off two straight points before a Sawtelle kill gave the Aggies a 1-0 lead. Estrada finished with a season-best five aces.
A&T cruised from there. The Aggies hit a whopping .706 in the second set while the Pirates posted a minus-.087 hitting percentage. In the third set, Hampton's Madison Clark got the Pirates to within three at 11-8 on a kill, but the Aggies outscored the Pirates 8-2 to take a 19-10 lead after Madison Sanabria's solo block. Hampton did not get any closer than seven, as the match and set ended on a Hampton service error.
Sophomore setter Chiara Napoli added 25 assists for the Aggies, and fellow sophomore setter Sagaia Reilly had a career-best nine assists. Rhisen Davis and Tyller Williams led the Pirates with seven kills apiece.
