TOWSON, Md. – Fifth-seeded North Carolina A&T volleyball saw its quest to win a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament title end on Friday afternoon with a 3-0 loss (25-13, 17, 20) to top-seeded Hofstra in the semifinals of the 2025 CAA Volleyball Championship Tournament at Towson University's SECU Arena.
Hofstra's win marked the second straight season the Pride eliminated the Aggies from the CAA tournament. Hofstra improved to 22-3 and will face Campbell in the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m., from SECU Arena. Campbell and Hofstra shared the conference regular-season title in 2025.
Meanwhile, the Aggies dropped to 15-12. A year ago, after their loss to Hofstra, the Aggies were 17-10 and earned a bid to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) tournament. It may be a more challenging road to get to the postseason this year for the Aggies. Still, it does not take away from a program that qualified for the conference tournament two straight seasons and won its first-ever CAA tournament match with the win over Charleston on Thursday.
The Aggies were hoping to play for their first conference championship since winning the 2020 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament title in the spring of 2021, as the COVID pandemic had postponed the season. But Hofstra proved too strong from the beginning.
In 111 attack attempts over the three-setter, the Pride made only six errors and posted a .405 hitting percentage. In addition, Hofstra's defense did not allow A&T's offense to get going, recording digs on almost half of the Aggies' attack attempts. Hofstra hit .452 in the first set, led by Beatriz Braga's seven kills, to beat the Aggies by double digits in the first set.
A kill by first-team All-CAA performer Tyne Ross and a service ace from sophomore Lili Radnai gave the Aggies an 11-9 lead in the second set. Hofstra outscored A&T 7-1 to take control of the set, however, gaining a 16-12 advantage. Clara Bal's kill extended the lead to 22-16 before CAA Player of the Year Izadora Stedile gave the Pride set point at 24-17 with a kill.
An Aggies attack error gave the Pride a 2-0 match lead. Stedile led the Pride in the second set with seven kills.
A&T got off to an excellent start in the third set as they tried to extend the match. Junior Mikala Sampson's kill gave the Aggies a 13-9 lead. Hofstra responded with a 4-0 run, but A&T was resilient. The Aggies grew their lead to two, 16-14, on a ball-handling error by Nina Jioshvili-Ravva.
After falling behind 17-16, kills from Ross and Luca Radnai put the Aggies back in front, 18-17. But a 3-0 Pride spurt led to an A&T timeout. After the timeout, the Aggies did get to within one, 20-19, on a Hofstra service error. However, the Pride outscored the Aggies 5-1 for the remainder of the set to advance to the championship match.
"Today was not our day," said A&T head coach Hal Clifton. "We ran into a buzz saw. I will say one thing: we never stopped competing, and that's a good sign. That's a part of the culture we have. No matter how good or bad things get, always compete.
Clifton acknowledged the contributions of middle blocker Jada Hampton and second-team all-conference setter Leonor Polezzi have made to the program. Polezzi finished the evening with 28 assists, nine digs and one total block. She had 14 double-doubles during the season.
Ross led the Aggies with 13 kills, and freshman Nicole Ellis had eight kills and hit .438 for the match. Sampson, another expected returner, had seven kills. Braga led the Pride with 15 kills and a .500 hitting percentage.
