Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 NORFOLK, Va. – UNC Wilmington and Rutgers each picked up wins over the Norfolk State volleyball team on Saturday by 3-0 scores to conclude the second day of play in the Spartan Classic at Joseph Echols Hall.

UNC Wilmington won the first two sets in the early afternoon match, 25-19, 25-18. NSU gave the Seahawks a run for their money in the third set before UNC Wilmington prevailed, 27-25. The Spartans then hung tough with Rutgers early on in the nightcap a few hours later, falling in the first set 25-20. The Scarlet Knights prevailed in the next two sets by identical 25-14 scores.

Senior Charlotte Armstead and junior Coralie Jarema led NSU (2-8) in both matches. Jarema had 11 kills and hit .417 against UNC Wilmington (6-4), while Armstead tallied nine kills. Armstead and Jarema then had nine and six kills, respectively, against Rutgers (10-1).

Freshman Darcy Moore had 26 assists and six digs against the Seahawks, and then 22 assists and four digs in the match with the Scarlet Knights.

Jarema was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Kaley Melville of Stetson, Christi Laite and Jennifer Mallard of UNC Wilmington and Sarah Schmid and Alex Jones of Rutgers. Jones was named the tournament's MVP.

UNC Wilmington hit a solid .278 for the match and flexed its muscles early, scoring six of the first seven points of the match before NSU countered with a 5-0 run to tie it up. After UNC Wilmington went up by four, sophomore Jasmin Flowers added a couple of kills that eventually tied the score at 15-all. The Seahawks, though, used a 5-1 run a little later to take the lead for good.

Thanks to several errors on NSU, UNC Wilmington staked itself to an 8-4 lead in the second set. The Seahawks had an answer every time the Spartans scored and slowly stretched the lead to eight, 19-11. Jarema had a pair of kills and a block during a 6-1 run for NSU that made it 20-17, but the Seahawks wasted little time from there in shutting down the Spartans for the rest of the set.

The teams went back and forth in the third set, with NSU taking a 9-8 lead after a trio of errors on the Seahawks. Jarema added two more kills during a 6-1 run that gave the Spartans a five-point lead, 19-14. After sophomore Adriana Ramos made it 21-16 with a service ace, though, UNC Wilmington slowly crept back, turning a 24-22 deficit into a 25-24 advantage. Jarema held off match point with another kill, but the Seahawks claimed the last two points of the set for the match win.

Laite and Mallard had 13 and 11 kills, respectively, to lead the Seahawks. Natalie LaHaie added 30 assists, six digs and three blocks, and McKenzie Keightley posted six blocks.

Armstead and Jarema threw down back-to-back kills to keep NSU within one early on in the first set against Rutgers. Down 12-8, NSU continued to stay close, getting to within one again at 14-13 after a Jarema kill. Rutgers tried to pull away, but a 5-2 Spartan run, capped by a kill from junior Goda Jankauskaite, made it 19-18. The Scarlet Knights, though, ended the set on a 6-2 run.

Rutgers jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the second set and kept NSU from scoring two points in a row for most of the stanza. Down 22-8, the Spartans scored six of the next eight points before Rutgers finished the set.

Then in the third, Armstead had a pair of kills to get NSU to within one, 5-4. She later added a kill and a service ace, and then Jarema and Flowers added kills to keep the deficit at two each time. Rutgers slowly pulled away, using a 6-1 run at one point to build an eight-point lead, and finished the tournament undefeated without dropping a set.

Alex Lassa had 15 kills with six digs to lead the Scarlet Knights, while Stephanie Zielinski had a double-double with 34 assists and 11 digs. Rutgers hit .402 for the match, compared to .106 for NSU.

NSU will head to Colorado to take part in the Air Force/Colorado Invitational next Friday and Saturday, where the Spartans will face Washington State, Air Force, Colorado and CSU Bakersfield.