Championship Central | Championship Bracket
NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team gets one more shot to add to its 2010 accomplishments at the MEAC Championship this weekend at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex.
The No. 3 seed in the South Division, the Spartans will take on No. 2 seed Delaware State from the North Division Friday at 7 p.m. in the last of four matches on the day.
NSU earned its No. 3 seeding after finishing in third place in the South Division with a 5-3 record. Owning a 13-19 overall record, NSU has recorded its most wins in a season and in MEAC play since going 19-13 with a 5-3 MEAC mark in 1998.
Admission for the championship tournament is $5 for adults and $3 for students, children under the age of 11, and senior citizens. Tickets are available at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex the day of the event.
Scouting the Spartans
Sophomore Charlotte Armstead is the team leader in kills, now up to 2.65 per set after hitting double-digits in the last three matches. She is joined by freshman Arielle Knafel (2.23) and sophomore Ellica Morris (2.18) in leading the up-front attack. Junior Nicole Kessner averages 7.95 assists and has the best hitting percentage at .278, ahead of the .237 clip by Armstead. Knafel and Morris top the team in service aces with 0.31 per set.
Junior Jasmine Frazier adds 1.41 kills and is the leader at the net with 0.68 blocks. Armstead ranks second with 0.56 blocks, while freshman Noelle Eagles ranks first in digs with 3.65. Knafel, with 2.67, and redshirt sophomore Paige Gary-Canty, with 2.10, sit second and third on the team in digs as well.
The Spartans hit a collective .117 with 10.9 kills per set, while opponents attack at a .163 clip with 9.8 kills. NSU also holds the advantage in backcourt defense, averaging 12.9 digs compared to 11.4 for the opposition. NSU does trail, though, in service aces (1.6-1.5) and blocks (2.1-1.3).
Investigating the Hornets
Winners of four in a row and eight of its last nine, Delaware State comes in with a 16-11 record, including 8-2 in the MEAC Northern Division.
DSU's offense runs through several players, with Erica Tajchman leading the way with 2.61 kills per set. Sarah Wheatcroft (2.34), Jessica Croucher (2.10) and Elisa Hermann (2.08) also pace the offense in kills, while Martina Ferrari sets them up with 8.91 assists.
Sonja Banicevic leads the MEAC with 4.55 digs and also has a team-leading 0.30 service aces per set. Ferrari (2.48) and Wheatcroft and Tajchman (2.41 each) create a solid nucleus of backcourt defenders, while Ashley Herman and Wheatcroft lead the blocking with 60 and 59 total blocks, respectively.
Delaware State is in a statistical deadlock with opponents in every major category. The Hornets hit .182 as a team with 11.7 kills per set, compared to .156 and 11.5 kills for opponents. Delaware State also leads in service aces, 1.42-1.33, and digs, 14.9-14.2, and barely trails in blocks, 1.70-1.68.
The Last Time These Teams Met
In their only meeting on the season, Delaware State earned a 3-2 win over NSU on Sept. 25 at Joseph Echols Hall. After NSU won the fourth set, 29-27, to tie the match up, the Hornets used a big run to win the fifth set, 15-9. Armstead led all players with 19 kills, while freshmen Noelle Eagles and Arielle Knafel totaled 30 and 20 digs, respectively.
What a Week
Armstead was named the MEAC Player of the Week Monday by the conference office after averaging 4.17 kills per set in the last week of the regular season. The Williamsburg, Va., native hit .379 and totaled seven digs, five blocks, five service aces and two assists as NSU went 2-1 last week.
Armstead had a season-best .483 attack percentage with 16 kills in a 3-0 win over Hampton, and also hit .394 with 19 kills – 11 in the first set alone – in a 3-1 loss to top seed Florida A&M.
MEAC Rankings
The NSU-Delaware State matchup will pit the top two teams in the league, in terms of opponent attack percentage, against each other. NSU ranks second in the MEAC, as opponents hit just .162. The Hornets stand atop the rankings with opponents hitting .156.
NSU also ranks third in digs (12.87 per set) and service aces (1.48), and fifth in assists (9.98) and kills (11.00). Individually, Eagles ranks fourth in digs (3.65) and Kessner stands fifth in assists (7.95). Other players who appear in the MEAC statistics include Armstead (sixth in points, 3.25), Knafel (sixth in service aces, 0.31; eighth in digs, 2.67), and Morris (seventh in service aces, 0.31).
Record-Breaking Season
Along with posting the second-most wins as a D-I program, NSU has also set or could still set several individual and team season records.
The 2010 Spartans already own the team record for kills in a season with 1,319, breaking the old mark of 1,314 set in 1993, as well as assists (1,197, topping the previous best of 1,084 also set in 1993). NSU just needs three more block assists to tie the all-time mark of 234 set in 2006.
Armstead and Kessner now sit in the top spot for kills and assists in a season (318 and 851, respectively), while Eagles is 15 digs and Frazier is six block assists away from tying those respective program marks.
Limiting Mistakes
NSU has committed just one block error in the last six matches, and after going through a stretch in which the team had as many or more service errors than its opponent in 9 of 10 matches, the Spartans have had fewer service errors than the opposition in four of the past six.
All-Time Top 10
Several current Spartans also sit in the top 10 in career records. Kessner, of course, is the program's all-time leader in assists with 2,136, while Armstead ranks fifth in block assists with 99 and sixth in career kills with 510.
Kessner also stands eighth in digs with 517, with Eagles ranking 10th at 434 career digs. Sophomore Kristen Burt ranks eighth in assists with 241. Other players sitting just outside the top 10 including Morris (332 kills), Armstead (28 blocks solo) and Frazier (63 block assists).
