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NORFOLK, Va. – Coming off a defining win over William & Mary last week, the Norfolk State volleyball team struggled early on against Howard Sunday afternoon. Down 2-0 after a flat performance in the early part of the match, though, the Spartans finally found the spark that was needed to propel them to a 3-2 victory in a conference matchup at Joseph Echols Hall.

NSU committed 11 service errors in the first two sets as Howard won, 25-22, 25-22, despite the Spartans having the clear advantage on the stat sheet. After the 10-minute intermission, NSU turned it around and took the third set, 25-21, before cruising to 25-15, 15-7 victories in the last two sets.

The win marked the third in a row for NSU (5-16, 2-1 MEAC) and prevented the Spartans from becoming Howard's first 'W' of the year. The Bison dropped to 0-15 overall, 0-4 in conference play.

After a big performance against William & Mary, senior Charlotte Armstead followed that up with a match-high 18 kills. Freshman Jessica Johnson added eight, while senior Beatriz Ferreira and junior Goda Jankauskaite had seven kills each, including five in the first set alone for Ferreira.

NSU nearly had three players with double-doubles, with freshman Darcy Moore tallying 29 assists and 15 digs. Redshirt sophomore Noelle Eagles led all players with 21 digs to go with 11 assists, and senior Nicole Kessner split time with Moore at setter and posted 14 assists and nine digs.

Assata Conway and Meagan Lagerlef each had 13 kills to lead the Bison.

Lagerlef had three of those kills in the early part of the match to put Howard up by an 8-4 score. NSU shook the cobwebs out and went on a 5-0 run to take a one-point lead, 11-10. Redshirt sophomore Kylee Thiim put down a kill to cap a 7-2 run and force the Bison to call timeout down by four to NSU. From there, though, Howard's offense took control, and the Spartans were limited to just a pair of kills the rest of the set.

NSU had no answer to start the second set as Howard jumped out to a 10-3 lead. Armstead had a pair of kills to get the Spartans to within four, but NSU had to call timeout a little later after falling behind by eight. NSU used a 6-1 run to cut the deficit to three, 21-18. After the teams traded points, however, the Spartans got no closer than two before digging themselves into a 2-0 hole in the match.

NSU got production from several different players in the third set, but it was Armstead who had three kills within a five-serve span to give NSU an 11-7 lead. After the Bison cut the Spartan lead to one, 14-13, Armstead and Thiim combined on a block to get the advantage back up to four. Another kill from Armstead made it 21-16, and sophomore Adriana Ramos and Jankauskaite each threw down kills for NSU's last points of the set and keep the Spartans alive.

After posting five kills in the second set, Armstead added seven more in the third.

Johnson's service ace put the Spartans up by three to start the fourth set, but neither team could get much going during the next several serves. NSU finally did, with Thiim's service ace capping a 7-3 run and giving the Spartans a four-point edge. Up 17-14, NSU quickly put Howard away and forced a fifth set thanks to a 7-0 run. Five of those points came courtesy of Bison errors.

Back-to-back kills from Howard forced NSU to call timeout down by a 4-3 margin in the fifth. The Spartans countered with a 4-0 run, and then a block by Thiim and junior Coralie Jarema made it 10-6. Howard won the next point, but the Spartans put a stamp on the comeback by winning the last five points of the match, four of those via Spartan kills.

Thiim chipped in with six kills, five blocks and four digs. Johnson and Ramos each added eight digs on the day.

NSU will face a difficult test on Tuesday as VCU comes to Echols Hall. The match is slated to begin at 6 p.m.