GREENSBORO – The good times continued to roll inside Moore Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
The North Carolina A&T volleyball team won for the fifth time in its last six matches, improving to 6-0 at home with a four-set win (25-18, 15-25, 25-23, 25-20) over the William & Mary Tribe. The Aggies completed the weekend sweep of W&M after winning in four sets on Friday night.
A&T's latest three-match winning streak moved the Aggies above .500 at 9-8. The win also moved the Aggies to 5-3 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). Junior Mikala Sampson got the Aggies going in the first set while sophomore Tyne Ross kept the pressure on the Tribe throughout most of the match. Sampson and Ross posted six kills in the first set to lead the Aggies to the first-set win. The second set did not go as well for A&T.
W&M took command of the set early, taking a 7-2 lead before growing that lead to 13-6. The Tribe led by as many as 11 at 21-10 before winning the set by 10. The two teams then battled for the all-important match lead in the third set before heading into the fourth.
The pivotal third set looked as if it was going the Tribe's way. W&M took a 19-16 lead on a Ross attack error. Ross responded with authority. Ross followed a kill with a solo block before tying the set at 19 with another kill. W&M scored the next two points. But a 4-0 A&T run fueled by two more Ross kills gave the Aggies a 23-21 advantage.
A&T grabbed set point on a Ryann Love attack error before Sampson gave the Aggies the crucial 2-1 match lead it sought by putting down a kill. The Aggies' march toward victory got a boost when they put together a 10-2 spurt to take a 20-12 lead in the fourth set.
A 5-1 run by the Tribe moved W&M to within four at 21-17 before Ross got the Aggies back on track with a kill. Ross gave the Aggies set and match point with a kill that put the Aggies ahead 24-19. An Avery Horejsi service error clinched the win.
Ross led the Aggies with 20 kills, nine digs and two total blocks. She made only four errors in 50 attack attempts to post an impressive .320 hitting percentage. Sampson had an excellent birthday weekend. She followed her 11-kill, four-dig, two-block performance on Friday, and she returned on Saturday to add 14 kills, six digs, and four total blocks.
Junior Leonor Polezzi added 48 assists, 19 digs, five kills, three aces, and two total blocks. Polezzi's double-double is the 19th of her career and her eighth of the season. She had nine kills for the weekend, posting a .400 hitting percentage.
Freshman Nicole Ellis added another three blocks, giving her nine for the weekend. Sophomore Luca Radnai added nine kills.
A&T will move away from the comforts of home but will not go away too far as the Aggies face Piedmont Triad rival Elon in a two-match weekend series, starting on Friday, October 24, at 3 p.m. from the Schar Center. The series concludes on Saturday with a 6 p.m. matchup.
