Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team shook off some early cobwebs and never looked back in defeating Savannah State, 3-0, Monday evening at Joseph Echols Hall for the team's second win in a row.
A slow start to the first set for NSU quickly turned around into a 25-10 win for the Spartans, as NSU went on to take the next two sets, 25-13, 25-20.
The win, NSU's second in a row, improved the team's record to 7-14 on the season, while Savannah State saw its record fall to 2-18 with their 10th-straight loss.
The Spartans were led by sophomore Ellica Morris, who totaled a match-high 13 kills, as many as the Tigers had as a team for the entire match. Freshman Arielle Knafel and sophomore Charlotte Armstead added eight kills each, while redshirt sophomore Paige Gary-Canty and freshman Noelle Eagles totaled 14 and 13 digs, respectively.
Junior Nicole Kessner had 23 assists despite not playing most of the third set, with sophomore Kristen Burt adding nine.
Savannah State was led by Bryana Gadis with four kills and Kaneisha Hamilton with 14 digs. Ashlee Butler handed out 11 assists to go along with eight digs.
NSU limited the Tigers to a -.060 attack percentage with just 13 kills and 18 errors, while the Spartans had their second-straight solid match at the net, hitting .264. NSU also committed its fewest attack errors on the season with 16 while adding 40 kills.
The Spartans also posted more digs (47-30) and service aces (7-4), while Savannah State had a 4-1 edge in blocks.
A service ace by Morris had NSU up, 4-2, to begin the first set, but four straight points by the Tigers gave them a 6-4 lead, and NSU called a timeout two serves later down 7-5. The wheels then fell off the bus for Savannah State, as a kill by Armstead after that timeout sparked an 11-1 run by the Spartans.
Knafel added three kills during that run that ended with NSU up, 16-8. She then went to serve for a 5-0 run that stretched the lead to 21-9. Kessner landed a kill and three straight attack errors on the Tigers ended the set with NSU on top, 25-10.
A service ace by Armstead and a kill by Knafel helped NSU take a 7-3 lead to start the second set, a lead that stretched to 12-5 after four straight errors on the Tigers. A 4-0 run after that point by Savannah State cut the lead to 12-9, but a kill by Morris ended a 4-0 run for the Spartans and saw the lead grow to 16-9.
The teams went back and forth for a short while thereafter, but NSU used a 5-0 run at the end of the set to take a 25-13 win.
It did not look good for NSU to start the third set, as a trio of kills and a block for the Tigers gave them a 4-1 lead. A 6-0 run for the Spartans, with three kills by Morris and two service aces by Armstead mixed in, put NSU ahead, 7-4. Morris posted six kills all-together in the set.
Savannah State called a timeout and eventually got the deficit to one at 8-7, but another 4-0 run, sparked by three attack errors on the Tigers, made it 12-7. The Spartans struggled in the mid-portion of the set, dropping 7-of-10 points at one point that cut the lead to two at 18-16.
NSU committed several service errors to keep the Tigers in the match, with Savannah State eventually tying things up at 19-19 when Gadis returned favor with a service ace.
Thanks to two kills by Armstead, NSU used a 4-0 run to grab a 23-19 lead, and a few serves later Armstead again threw down a kill for the 25-20 third-set win.
NSU continues its homestand by hosting South Carolina State Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Echols Hall.
