GREENSBORO, NC – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University lost a key home volleyball match Thursday night, falling to Towson in four sets, 25-22, 25-16, 20-25, 25-18, at Moore Gymnasium.
The Aggies are still in contention for a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Volleyball Championship Tournament berth, but Thursday's loss was their third straight after they hit .155. The Aggies are 9-13 overall and 4-7 in CAA play and stand in eighth place. The top 6 teams in the regular-season standings, with consideration of tiebreakers, earn a berth in the conference tournament. Taylor Pagan led the Tigers with 15 kills as Towson improved to 14-7 overall and 7-4 in conference play and moved into third place.
A&T and Towson traded blows in a back-and-forth first set. An attack error from Towson's Clara Vorel tied the first set 11-11. The two teams traded 12 lead changes and 11 ties from that point until Pagan gave the Tigers the lead for good with a kill that put Towson up 23-22. A solo block from Malinah Purcell-Telefoni gave the Tigers set point before Purcell-Telefoni closed it with a kill.
Towson used 10 attack errors from A&T to win the second set before the Aggies extended the match in the third. The Aggies had their most efficient set, hitting .323 while the Tigers committed eight attack errors. Junior
Tyne Ross led A&T with six kills, and the Aggies went on a 4-0 run, capped by a block-assist from junior
Luca Radnai and freshman
Kirsten Kemper, to take a 12-7 lead.
Radnai helped the Aggies extend their lead to six, 20-14, on a kill before the Tigers rallied with a 3-0 spurt finished off by a kill from Pagan. Ross got the Aggies back on track with a kill, complemented by a block-assist from junior
Agata Zwierzynska and Radnai to give the Aggies a 22-17 advantage. An attack error by Ana Rice gave the Aggies set point at 24-18 before Kemper pulled them within one in the match, 2-1, with a kill. Towson then ended the match strong, hitting .387 in the fourth set. Ava Drye led with six kills and made only one attack error on nine attempts to hit .556, and her attack error was the Tigers' only one in the set.
Ross led the Aggies with 15 kills, five digs, and one total block. Zwierzynska added 11 kills and one total block with a .400 hitting percentage. Sophomore
Nicole Ellis contributed seven kills and four total blocks, and Kemper finished with 37 assists, nine digs, four total blocks, and four kills.
A&T will complete its two-match series with Towson on Friday, with first serve at 4 p.m. As part of North Carolina A&T's 100
th Greatest Homecoming on Earth, the volleyball program will welcome back numerous former players from various decades.
