Full MEAC Release

NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State University volleyball Interim Head Coach Brandon Duvall was named the MEAC Coach of the Year, the conference office announced Thursday.

In addition, sophomore Charlotte Armstead was named to the All-MEAC Second Team, in voting done by conference coaches and sports information directors.

Named the interim coach just weeks before the start of the 2010 season, Duvall led the Spartans to a 5-3 mark in the MEAC Southern Division and a third-place finish. NSU posted a 13-19 overall record, the second-highest win total since NSU moved to Division I in 1997.

This season marked just the second time NSU had a record better than .500 in MEAC play. The 1998 team also had a 5-3 conference record and posted the most wins during the D-I era with a 19-13 overall record.

NSU ranks second in the conference in opponent hitting percentage (.162) and third in service aces (1.48 per set) and digs (12.87).

Duvall served as the assistant volleyball coach at NSU the last two seasons before being named the interim coach in August 2010. He coached at the high school and club level in the Hampton Roads area for more than a decade before coming to NSU.

He becomes NSU's first-ever volleyball Coach of the Year in the MEAC.

A 6-foot-0 middle blocker/outside hitter out of Williamsburg, Va., Armstead became the team leader on offense as the season wore on. She currently paces the Spartans with 2.65 kills per set and has the best hitting percentage among the team's regular rotation of hitters with a .237 mark.

She was recently named the MEAC Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 4.17 kills per set in three matches last week and breaking the all-time NSU record for kills in a season with 318.

Armstead also ranked second on the team with 0.56 blocks per set and added 0.41 digs, 0.26 service aces and 11 total assists on the season.

It marked the second year in a row NSU had an All-MEAC player after junior setter Nicole Kessner was named to the second team last season as a sophomore.

The Spartans wrap up the 2010 season at the MEAC tournament this weekend. The No. 3 seed in the South, NSU will take on the No. 2 seed from the Northern Division, Delaware State, at 7 p.m. Friday.