GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T came into the weekend facing the challenge of competing against the No. 1 volleyball team in the Coastal Athletic Association while also trying to stay relevant in the fierce battle for one of the six available berths to the CAA Volleyball Championship Tournament, November 21-23 in Towson, Md.
The Aggies leave the weekend a team very much relevant in the race for the top of the standings in the CAA after sweeping the College of Charleston Cougars with a four-set win (23-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-22) at Moore Gymnasium on Saturday. Senior Hannah Howell had another fantastic match with 20 kills and eight digs to help the Aggies improve to 13-7 overall and 8-4 in CAA play.
Caitlyn Callahan led the Cougars with 11 kills as they fell to 17-7 overall and 9-3 in league play. After Saturday's action, the Aggies find themselves one match behind Charleston and Hofstra in the win column 1 ½ matches behind the Hofstra Pride in the overall standings. The Pride will complete their weekend series against Delaware on Sunday.
A&T played like one of the top teams in the CAA all weekend. Even when the Aggies trailed 24-20 in the first set, they managed to give the Cougars some pause with a kill from freshman Luca Radnai and a service ace from Howell to cut the deficit to two. An attack error by the Cougars put the Aggies to within one before Callahan gave the Cougars the set win with a kill.
It was all A&T from there. Freshman Tyne Ross had seven of her 19 kills in the second set to lead the Aggies to the 10-point win. A&T hit .344 in the third set and got seven kills and zero attack errors on 10 attempts from Howell (.700) to cruise to a nine-point win and a 2-1 lead in the match. The Aggies finished off the Cougars in the fourth set by getting seven kills apiece from Ross and Howell.
Charleston got to within one in the fourth set on a Valeria Estrada service error. But Howell took a pass from Leonor Polezzi and scored to put the Aggies ahead 23-21. Polezzi then took a pass from Howell and slammed down a kill to give the Aggies match and set point. Another A&T service error kept the Cougars alive, but A&T completed its sweep with another Howell kill. Howell had a superb two days inside Moore.
She finished with 37 kills and 26 digs in nine sets played. Meanwhile, Ross added a career-high 19 digs to her totals on Saturday to post her third double-double of the season. Polezzi had her seventh double-double of the season with 46 assists and 18 digs. She also had three total blocks. Senior Maya Johnson had six kills and four total blocks.
A&T returns to action next weekend when the Phoenix of Elon comes to Moore for a weekend series starting Saturday, November 2 at 5 p.m. Match No. 2 is November 3 at 3 p.m. Both matches will air live on FloVolleyball.
