Box Score
RADFORD, Va. – Tied at 1-1 following two close opening sets, Canisius put the match away with dominating third and fourth sets for a 3-1 victory over the Norfolk State volleyball team Saturday afternoon at the Radford Tournament.
Canisius won the first set, 25-22, after coming back from a 10-point deficit, but the Spartans rallied late in the second set to win, 26-24. The Griffins quickly ended things with 25-17 wins in the last two sets.
Junior Jasmine Frazier led all players with 12 kills and also added seven blocks. Freshmen Arielle Knafel and Noelle Eagles posted 16 and 13 digs, respectively, while sophomore Kristen Burt, subbing for regular starter Nicole Kessner, added 30 assists.
Despite limiting Canisius to a .123 attack percentage, the Spartans were done in by 39 attack errors, resulting in a -.024 hitting percentage. The Griffins also had an 8-4 lead in service aces and a slight 11-10 advantage in blocks.
NSU posted a season-high in blocks and had more than the previous two matches combined.
Janelle Davis had eight kills and 19 assists to lead the way for Canisius, while Allyson Severyn (12 digs) and Samantha Good (six blocks) anchored the Griffin defense.
Tied 2-2 early in the first set, NSU went on a 7-0 run, helped by three blocks from Frazier, and won 11-of-12 points during the stretch to take a commanding 13-3 lead. The Griffins then countered with a 7-0 run of their own, cutting down the NSU lead to just 14-11.
Frazier ended that run with a kill, and after two bad sets on NSU, the teams traded points until Canisius won five straight points to go up 21-19. A kill by Frazier and a Griffin attack error tied the score up at 22-22, but two straight kills and a block by Canisius ended the set, 25-22.
Canisius got the upper hand to start the second set after gaining a 5-1 lead, but a kill by redshirt sophomore Paige Gary-Canty and a bad set on the Griffins tied the score at 8-8. Canisius won five of the next six points to take a 13-9 lead and then extended it to five at 17-12.
A service ace by Knafel a short time later cut the lead to two at 19-17, but again Canisius countered and used a service error on NSU for a 22-19 advantage. NSU quickly responded after a timeout there, as a kill by sophomore Maatra Henderson and a block by Knafel and sophomore Charlotte Armstead were followed by a bad set on Canisius that tied the set at 22-all.
Down 24-23 a few serves later, NSU used a kill by Frazier and an attack error on the Griffins to go up, 25-24, then took the second set on the very next play on another bad set by Canisius.
The third set started with a 7-3 NSU lead, capped off with a kill by freshman Mykal Vailu'u and an attack error on Canisius. After the Griffins got to within one at 7-6, NSU went back up by four at 11-7 thanks to back-to-back kills by Frazier and Knafel and then a Frazier block.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, that was as close as they got to winning the third set, as Canisius cut the lead to one at 13-12 before going on a 9-0 run for a 21-14 lead. The Griffins easily finished off the third set for a 25-17 victory.
Canisius took a 4-1 lead to begin the fourth set and extended it to 8-3 a short time later before NSU called a timeout to slow down the Griffin offense. The Spartans got as close as three points on a kill and service ace by Frazier for a 14-11 Canisius lead, but NSU was unable to string together two straight points as the Griffins coasted the rest of the way to a 25-17 fourth-set win.
