Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. – The Norfolk State volleyball team saw its season come to a close with a 3-0 loss to Delaware State Friday night at the MEAC tournament at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex.

Delaware State's offense was in full effect as the Hornets cruised to a 25-17, 25-14, 25-21 win to run their record to 17-11 on the year. NSU finished the season 13-20 overall.

Sophomore Charlotte Armstead led the Spartans with 10 kills on a .471 attack percentage, with freshman Arielle Knafel posting seven kills and six digs. Freshman Noelle Eagles led NSU with eight digs, while junior Nicole Kessner tallied 26 assists.

NSU hit .137, but the story of the night was the Delaware State offense, which hit a blistering .330 with just 11 attack errors. The Hornets also led the Spartans in digs, 37-27, blocks, 6-4, and service aces, 4-2. Delaware State committed just three service errors all-together.

Sarah Wheatcroft led all players with 13 kills, and Sonja Banicevic, the MEAC leader in digs, added to her total with 14 against the Spartans. Martina Ferrari totaled 31 assists.

Down 6-3 early on, a service error on DSU and an ace by sophomore Ellica Morris cut the deficit to one at 6-5, and back-to-back kills by Armstead and redshirt sophomore Paige Gary-Canty tied the score at 8-8. A 7-1 run, though, by the Hornets made it 15-9.

Back-to-back kills by Armstead got NSU to within three at 16-13, but Delaware State scored the next five points to put the set out of reach, 21-13. The Hornets went on to win, 25-17. Armstead had five kills in the set to pace the NSU offense, but the Hornets hit .421 to keep NSU at bay.

The Spartans jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set, but a 6-1 run by the Hornets quickly ended that threat as the Hornets jumped ahead by two, 8-6. After that 5-2 lead, NSU failed to score two straight points throughout the rest of the set as Delaware State easily won, 25-14.

Things did not look much better early in the third set when NSU had to call timeout down 7-1. The deficit later reached seven, by down 13-6, NSU started to cut into the lead, getting to within three at 15-12 on a bad set by Ferrari.

After NSU called another timeout down 18-12, the Spartans began to chip away at the DSU lead. A kill by Armstead cut the deficit to four at 19-15 before kills by Knafel and sophomore Maatra Henderson cut the lead to three and then two, the latter at 21-19. But after Henderson's kill made it 23-21, the Hornets scored the last two points for the 25-21 win.