Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team continued its hot streak and extracted some revenge against Coppin State in a 3-0 Spartan victory Wednesday night at Joseph Echols Hall.
NSU won its Division-I record sixth straight match, and 10th in the last 12, and knocked off the Eagles after Coppin State won the first contest this year up in Baltimore in late September. The Spartans earned the mid-week sweep on Wednesday, 25-20, 25-16, 25-20, to run their overall record to 12-18 and their MEAC mark to 8-2.
The Spartans need just one more win to tie their D-I record of 13 set in 2010. The team's 8-2 mark is already the best ever in 16 years in the MEAC.
The victory also moved NSU one step closer to locking up the Northern Division's No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. The Spartans can clinch the No. 2 spot with a win this weekend against either UMES or Delaware State or a Hampton loss to either of those two schools.
After Coppin State's offense lit NSU up in the first match this year, the Spartans did a solid job of keeping the Eagle attack from gaining traction on Wednesday. The Eagles hit just .079 after attacking at a .269 clip before. In a reversal of fortunes, NSU hit a solid .260 the second time around after going for just .031 in the first contest.
Freshman
Jessica Johnson led all players with 12 kills, but it was the tandem of senior
Charlotte Armstead and junior
Goda Jankauskaite that really helped carry NSU. The duo added eight kills each and hit a combined .536 with just one attack error.
Ariel Richard led Coppin State (10-13, 5-6) with nine kills.
A kill and a pair of service aces from Jankauskaite sparked a 5-0 run in the early part of the match, and a kill from sophomore
Jasmin Flowers put NSU up by a 9-3 score. The Eagles countered with a 4-0 run and eventually got the deficit down to two, 14-12. Johnson later had four kills within a five-serve span for a 23-17 lead, and NSU withstood a short burst by the Eagle offense near the end of the set.
Johnson had seven kills in the first stanza.
The Spartans had three 3-0 runs to start the second set, capped by a service ace from sophomore
Adriana Ramos to go up 10-5. Coppin State then committed several errors during an 8-1 Spartan run to fall behind, 18-7. A block from Armstead and Flowers gave NSU its biggest lead, 23-12, and again the Spartans withstood a short run by the Eagles.
It was much the same in the third set, as the Spartans jumped out to a 6-2 advantage. After getting to within two, Coppin State had to call timeout after another kill from Johnson made it 12-7 in favor of the Spartans. NSU stretched the lead to seven and then eventually eight at 19-11. The Eagles made the Spartans sweat, getting to within four at 24-20 before Flowers ended the match.
Redshirt sophomore
Noelle Eagles led all players with 16 digs, while redshirt senior
Nicole Kessner and freshman
Darcy Moore had 17 and 15 assists, respectively.
NSU will host UMES on Friday in Gill Gymnasium at 7 p.m.