TOWSON, Md. – The Baltimore (Md.) and Washington DC North Carolina A&T Aggies showed up to support A&T's volleyball team matchup against the Towson Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Towson's TU Arena.
A&T's volleyball team showed its appreciation by showing tremendous effort against the perennial Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) power Tigers. The Aggies lost to the Tigers in three sets (28-26, 25-23, 25-13), but within those scores, the Aggies had their chances to turn the match in another direction. Instead, the Aggies dropped to 8-6 overall and 3-3 in CAA play.
Victoria Barrett helped the Tigers improve to 14-2 overall and 5-1 in league play with 15 kills. Despite A&T's loss, the Aggies had a more competitive showing than Friday's 3-0 loss, where the Tigers defeated the Aggies by double-figures twice within the sets.
"We played a much better match today," A&T head coach Hal Clifton said. "We were more relaxed, and the first two sets really could have gone either way. I'm happy with how we competed, even until the end when things were slipping. Our energy was good."
Towson and A&T battled to 11 ties in the first set, and the biggest lead during the set was three when Towson led the Aggies 15-12. A Barrett kill gave the Tigers set point at 24-23 before sophomore Mikala Sampson took an assist from sophomore Leonor Pelozzi to tie the set at 24-24. Freshman Tyne Ross put the Aggies on the brink of winning the set with a kill, but Zyare Abdul-Rahim prevented that from happening with a kill of her own.
After an attack error from Sampson, Ross kept A&T alive with another kill to tie set at 26-26. Towson finished off the Aggies, however, with a kill from Abdul-Rahim and an attack error from Ross. After taking a 1-0 lead in the match, A&T looked prepared to even things. They got off to an 8-3 start and led by as many as six, 21-15.
Unfortunately, Towson came roaring back, putting together a 4-0 run to cut A&T's lead to 21-19. The Tigers eventually took the lead, 23-22, on a block assist from Abdul-Rahim and Ylenia De Mango. Senior Madison Sanabria erased that quickly with a kill before the Tigers established set point with another block assist from Abdul-Rahim and De Mango. Barrett gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the match with a kill.
A&T did not have a solid hitting third set, hitting minus-.111. By contrast, the Tigers hit .429 in the third set to end the match. Senior Hannah Howell led the Aggies with 11, seven digs, and two service aces. Sampson posted nine kills and two total blocks, and Ross ended the afternoon with eight kills, 10 digs, and two total blocks.
As appreciative as the Aggies were for the support they received in Maryland, they will return home to get some home support next weekend when they face Stony Brook at home on October 12 and then the next day on October 13. Both match times are at 1 p.m., from Moore Gymnasium.
