Box Score

NORFOLK, Va. – Senior Night. A fired-up Norfolk State team looking for revenge against a Howard squad that handed the Spartans a devastating loss earlier in the season, on NSU's home court nonetheless. Both teams fighting for a MEAC tournament playoff spot. From the beginning, was there ever any doubt NSU would get the victory?

Playing arguably one of its best matches of the year, the Spartan volleyball team handed Howard a 3-1 setback Friday evening at Joseph Echols Hall. NSU's offense fired on all cylinders, while the Bison could barely get anything going as the Spartans handed them payback for a 3-2 loss at Echols on Oct. 9.

NSU won the rematch, 25-13, 25-19, 22-25, 25-14, but more importantly the Spartans improved their MEAC record to 5-5 while dropping the Bison to 4-5. The win moved NSU half a game ahead of Howard for fourth place in the Northern Division. Only the top four teams in the division advance to the MEAC tournament.

NSU also ran its overall record to 9-14, while Howard fell to 5-21 on the season.

Seniors Tracey Copley and Jasmine Frazier played a big part in the win, as Copley had a match-high 17 digs, while Frazier contributed six kills and three blocks. The duo was honored with framed photos and flowers prior to the match along with injured senior Nicole Kessner for their contributions to the Spartans program over the last several years.

Junior Charlotte Armstead had a match-high 17 kills with seven service aces and three blocks to lead the Spartan attack, while junior Beatriz Ferreira and freshman Adriana Ramos added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. The three hit a combined .326 to lead an offense that hit .262 for the night. NSU committed just 18 attack errors for the four-set match.

Howard hit just .070 overall, including .016 for the first two sets as NSU used big runs to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the contest. The Bison rallied late in the third set before the Spartans took complete control of the match in the fourth set.

Tosin Elebute, the league's second-leading player in kills per set, was held to just 12 kills, while Taylor Johnson added nine kills and four blocks. Jasmine King and Stephanie Shultis combined for 30 assists, and Jasmine Tipton had a team-high nine digs.

Junior Kristen Burt posted 44 assists for NSU, while junior Paige Gary-Canty added 11 digs. NSU held a 52-45 edge in digs over Howard and also tallied more service aces (10-4) and kills (51-34). The Bison held a slight edge in blocks, 6.5-6.0.

Several errors on the Spartans contributed to their slow start to the match, but NSU rallied from an early 6-4 deficit thanks to a combined nine kills from Ramos and Ferreira in the set. Kills from Ramos and Burt gave NSU a 9-8 lead, and then a big 7-1 run, highlighted by three kills from Ferreira and two service aces from Armstead, put NSU up by a 16-10 score. The Spartans later held a 19-13 lead, and then promptly scored the last six points of that first stanza, with three straight kills from Ramos highlighting that end-of-set run.

NSU was unable to keep that momentum going early in the second set, though, as several errors plus a pair of aces from Johnson gave Howard an 8-1 lead. The Spartans shook off that slow start for a 7-0 run to tie it right back up at 9-9. Two plays later, NSU started a big 8-1 run to take a five-point lead, 17-12.

After the Bison cut it to four, 19-15, junior Maatra Henderson landed a kill and then Gary-Canty hit perhaps the hardest shot of the night for another point as NSU continued to roll. The Spartans kept it going, and Armstead knocked down two more kills for the 2-0 lead.

Down 3-1 early in the third set, Howard put the Spartans into an 8-5 hole that they struggled to get out of. NSU strung together two straight points to get to within one at 10-9, but the Spartans were unable to do that again that as Howard eventually went up by a 20-16 score. At that point, NSU turned the jets on, scoring five straight points thanks to Armstead and Ferreira to finally get the lead back, 21-20. Howard, though, responded by winning five of the last six points of the set.

Any confidence the Bison gained from forcing a fourth set went away quickly as NSU grabbed a 9-3 lead in that fourth stanza. After that point, Armstead tallied four kills and a service ace as the Spartans answered every Howard point with at least two points themselves. The Spartans found themselves up 18-7 following that Armstead ace, and after the teams traded points, Armstead added two more kills, and a service error on Howard sent NSU into celebration mode with the match win.

Howard will look to even its conference record at Hampton on Sunday before finishing the year against Morgan State and Coppin State next weekend.

NSU will return to the court next weekend to wrap up the regular season at UMES and Delaware State.