MEAC Tournament
Friday: NSU vs. North Carolina Central, 7 p.m.
at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex
Live Stats | Tournament Bracket

NORFOLK, Va. – Fresh off its best MEAC season ever, the Norfolk State volleyball team will look to get another monkey off its back as the Spartans head to the MEAC Championship in Baltimore this weekend looking for their first win at the tournament in 13 years.

NSU will attempt to break a nine-match losing streak in the tournament that dates back to 1999 Friday at 7 p.m. against North Carolina Central at Coppin State's Physical Education Complex. The No. 2 seed Spartans had their best finish ever in the conference, finishing behind first-place UMES in the North at 9-3.

Click here to access the page on the MEAC website with links to the live stats for each match.

The Spartans have won seven of their last eight matches and 11 of their last 14 after starting out the year just 2-16.

NSU carries a 13-19 overall record, tied for the most wins in the school's Division I era with the 2010 team. North Carolina Central finished in third in the Southern Division at 6-4, losing out on the tiebreaker to South Carolina State, which also ended the season 6-4. The Eagles enter Friday night's match 8-21 overall.

Potential All-MEAC performer senior Charlotte Armstead leads the offense for NSU, averaging 3.11 kills per set on a .240 attack percentage. Freshman Jessica Johnson ranks second with 2.06 after upping her production as the season wore on. Senior Beatriz Ferreira (1.93) and junior Goda Jankauskaite (1.69) also provide some offense throughout the match.

Johnson also leads in service aces with 0.37, with sophomore Adriana Ramos second at 0.34. Freshman Darcy Moore and redshirt senior Nicole Kessner split time at setter and average 7.32 and 4.66 assists per set, respectively.

Jankauskaite leads the Spartans on the defensive side of the ball with 0.76 blocks per set, with junior Coralie Jarema second at 0.66. Redshirt sophomore Noelle Eagles anchors the backcourt with 4.04 digs. Ramos (1.87 digs) and Johnson (1.76) also chip in.

Winning Record, Winning Streak
NSU's 9-3 conference record marks just the second time in 16 years in the MEAC the Spartans finished with a winning record. The only other time was a 5-3 record in 2010 when the Spartans where a member of the Southern Division.

NSU also carded a six-game win streak this year before falling in a heartbreaker to UMES last Friday. The Spartans had never won six in a row in their Division I history, and their streak of 11 wins in their last 14 matches has also never been accomplished in the D-I era.

Record Chasing
With the season winding down, several players are still within reach of some NSU single-season records. Moore needs 21 more assists to tie Kessner's record of 877 set in 2010. Jankauskaite needs one more block assist to tie Karina Moore's record of 69 set in 2005, and Jarema needs two more as well to tie the mark.

Eagles also needs 33 digs to tie April Johnson's record of 449 set in 1996, and Armstead and Ramos need to play in five more sets to tie that single-season mark from Armstead and Jasmine Frazier in 2010.

MEAC, National Rankings
Eagles continues to rank in the top 5 in the league in digs, currently at fourth with 4.04. Armstead stands 10th in kills with 3.11 per set, while Jankauskaite is seventh in hitting percentage at .275. Both Moore and Johnson own seventh place in assists (7.32) and service aces (0.37).

As a team, NSU enters the tournament third in service aces (1.60), fourth in kills (11.69) and assists (10.66), fifth in opponent hitting percentage (.219), sixth in hitting percentage (.172), blocks (1.60) and digs (11.94).

Johnson ranks 50th in the nation in service aces, while as a team the Spartans stand 14th in the country in the same category.

About North Carolina Central
The Eagles defeated Savannah State and North Carolina A&T twice as well as Bethune-Cookman and South Carolina State once in conference play. NSU also defeated A&T but fell to S.C. State in the Spartan Invitational by a 3-1 score. The only other common opponent between NSU and N.C. Central was Hampton, a team the Eagles defeated 3-0. The Spartans swept Hampton by 3-0 scores in conference play after falling to the Pirates by a 3-2 score in the Spartan Invite.

The Eagles offense revolves around a newcomer, freshman Christine Anthony. She leads the way with 3.68 kills per set, while D. Arrufat Rondon ranks second with 2.95. Alice Genna (7.27 assists) and M. Rabell Pineiro (4.51) direct the offense, and Kalin Russell adds 0.36 service aces. Anthony also leads the team in digs with 2.40, and Russell is easily the team's top blocker with 0.87 per set.