This Weekend
Friday: at Coppin State, 7 p.m.
Sunday: at Morgan State, 3 p.m.
NORFOLK, Va. – The second half of the 2012 season gets underway this weekend for the Norfolk State volleyball team, with a pair of road matches Friday at Coppin State and Sunday at Morgan State opening up conference play for the Spartans.
NSU will face the Eagles Friday at 7 p.m. and the Bears Sunday at 3 p.m. Live stats and live video will not be available for either match.
The Spartans enter the weekend 2-15 overall after dropping contests to Texas-Pan American, South Carolina State and Hampton last weekend at the Spartan Invitational at Joseph Echols Hall. Coppin State owns a 5-7 mark after opening conference play last Sunday with a 3-1 win over Morgan State. The Bears, meanwhile, stand 0-13 on the year.
NSU got another solid performance from senior Charlotte Armstead last weekend, who led the Spartans in kills all three matches and has done so the last six times out. She leads the team with 2.98 kills per set and is hitting .227 on the year. Senior Beatriz Ferreira continues to rank second with 2.38 kills. Freshman Jessica Johnson, who missed last week due to concussion symptoms, has tallied 1.61 kills, while juniors Coralie Jarema and Goda Jankauskaite average 1.52 and 1.46, respectively.
Jarema has also added a team-leading 0.32 service aces. Freshman Darcy Moore has posted 8.52 assists in directing the Spartan offense.
Also having a big weekend was redshirt sophomore Noelle Eagles, who leads the team with 3.96 digs per set. Sophomore Adriana Ramos ranks second with 2.02, and Jarema has added 1.72 digs. Jarema and Jankauskaite also lead the way at the net, with Jankauskaite tops on the team with 0.75 blocks and Jarema right behind her at 0.73 per set.
Records Fall
Armstead and Eagles both put their names in the records book last weekend. Against South Carolina State on Saturday, Armstead surpassed Kim Mumford for the all-time kills record. Mumford, who played from 1992-95, had 937 kills during her career. Armstead is now just 39 away from becoming the only NSU player with 1,000 for her career.
Then against Hampton in the later match on Saturday, Eagles topped her own school record with 31 digs against the Pirates. Back in 2010, Eagles posted 30 digs twice to put her name at the top of that list. In addition, Eagles is also closing in on the all-time record of 869 held by Mumford despite just being a redshirt sophomore. She needs 154 more digs to pass Mumford.
Stepping Up
Sophomore Jasmin Flowers had a big weekend, first posting 10 kills against South Carolina State, the first time in her career she reached double digits in kills. Then against Hampton, she topped that with 12 kills. She wasn't the only one, though, to have a breakout match against the Pirates, as freshman Angie Darcus also had 12 kills with 14 digs on the night in her most productive match of the season.
Moore had 43 assists and 10 digs against the Pirates as NSU posted its first two double-doubles of the season that night with Darcus and Moore.
MEAC Leaderboard
Eagles moved up to third in the conference in digs with 3.96, while Moore now sits fourth in assists at 8.52. Armstead ranks seventh in points (3.40) and eighth in kills (2.98).
As a team, the Spartans rank fourth in assists (10.03) and kills (10.93), seventh in opponent hitting percentage (.252) and service aces (1.30), eighth in hitting percentage (.125) and digs (11.61), and ninth in blocks (1.48).
About Coppin State
The Eagles, who have finished last in the Northern Division the last five years, got off to a solid start this year with a victory over Morgan State. Coppin State has also earned wins over North Carolina A&T, Bryant, Lafayette and St. Francis (N.Y.).
Ariel Richard leads all players with 3.47 kills per set, with Cindy Okpegbue second at 2.36. Denali Sturgeon owns a team-leading 0.44 service aces, and Chelsee Sauni has added 8.23 assists. Kandace Thomas ranks first with 0.60 blocks, and Gabrielle Otero is by far the team's best backcourt defender with 4.49 digs.
About Morgan State
The Bears have yet to win a match and have only won three sets all year, against Sacramento State, Rider and Coppin State.
Arianna Hayden paces the way with 2.33 kills, with Samantha Prescott second at 1.88. Prescott ranks first with 0.24 service aces, and Ngebui Chafeh has tallied 6.39 assists. Defensively, Zuri Smith and Janelle Wilson average 0.80 and 0.71 blocks, respectively, while Tamara Leslie and Prescott rank 1-2 on the team with 2.76 and 2.18 digs.
Up Next
NSU will host William & Mary next Tuesday at Joseph Echols Hall beginning at 6 p.m.
