HAMPTON, Va. – North Carolina A&T has its first Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) volleyball win of 2024 in the books. In 82 minutes, the Aggies defeated the Hampton Pirates in three sets (25-14, 10, 16) at Holland Hall on Friday.
The Aggies had a season-high .354 hitting percentage in the win as they improved to 6-3 overall and 1-0 in CAA play. A&T's .354 hitting percentage on Friday is its highest since joining the CAA in 2022. It is also the Aggies highest percentage since hitting .464 against South Carolina State on February 26, 2021, during the COVID season.
Sophomore middle blocker Mikala Sampson had her first career double-figure kills match with 11. She also posted a .409 hitting percentage, six digs, and a block. Meanwhile, Hampton dropped to 0-12 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
In the first set, the Aggies and the Pirates played to a 7-7 before A&T outscored the Pirates 5-1 to take over the match as sophomore Mikala Sampson laid down a kill to give the Aggies a 12-8 advantage. A Tyne Ross kill led to a Hampton timeout as the Aggies captured a 20-13 lead. The stoppage in play did not help the Pirates.
Hampton scored only one more point after the timeout as a 4-0 run capped by a Hannah Howell kill gave the Aggies set point at 24-13. After a solo block by Hampton's Cortni Adams, the Aggies took a 1-0 lead in the match after Hampton's Morgan Warren served up a service error.
A dominant performance by A&T in the second set started with the Aggies taking a 10-1 lead on a Madison Sanabria kill. The lead grew to 14-2 on a solo block from Maya Johnson before senior Ceci Carter put together back-to-back service aces to give the Aggies a 2-0 advantage in the match. A&T hit .391 in the set, and Sanabria posted three total blocks.
Hampton kept things a little more competitive in the third set. A solo block by Adams got the Pirates to within four at 17-13 before two Hampton attack errors, an ace from sophomore Leonor Polezzi, and a solo block from Johnson put the Aggies back in control at 21-13. Ross gave the Aggies set and match point with a kill to put the Aggies ahead 24-16. Junior Jada Hampton ended the night with an ace.
"I thought we played a complete match today," A&T head coach Hal Clifton said. "I was very happy with our serving effort tonight. We were focused on putting a hard ball over the net, which helped us in our transition game. I thought Leo (Polezzi) spread the ball around pretty well, and got our middles involved in the offense."
The Aggies ended the match with 12 aces, led by sophomore Valeria Estrada's three. Polezzi, who came into the match just shy of the conference lead in assists per set (9.63), finished with 34 assists. Ross, who does lead the CAA in kills per set while ranking 12th nationally, led the Aggies with 15 kills. She also added two aces and nine digs.
Johnson finished with seven kills and two solo blocks. The Pirates and the Aggies will complete their weekend series on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest.
