Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Norfolk State volleyball team came up empty in a pair of matches on Saturday in the Villanova Classic, dropping a 3-0 contest to the host Wildcats and a 3-1 decision to Sacred Heart.

Villanova earned a 25-11, 25-20, 25-16 over NSU in a late morning matchup. The Spartans then fell to 4-10 overall this year after Sacred Heart came away with a 25-16, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22 win in a late afternoon contest at the Jake Nevin Field House.

NSU gave Sacred Heart a match after the Pioneers dominated the first set. The Spartans were unable to score two straight points until they were already down 22-13.

Errors on Sacred Heart allowed NSU to take an 8-2 lead to start the second set. The Spartans stretched the lead to 11-4, but the Pioneers went on a 9-3 run and later put together four straight points for a 17-16 advantage. A pair of kills from sophomore Janay Frazier sparked NSU, which pulled away after that point.

Seniors Goda Jankauskaite and Coralie Jarema each had a couple of kills as NSU jumped on top of the Pioneers by a 14-7 score in the third set. A 6-0 Sacred Heart run ended that big advantage, and then with NSU up by three, 20-17, the Pioneers won eight of the last 11 points of the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The final set went back and forth, with NSU building a 9-7 lead before the teams traded 4-0 runs. Sophomore Jessica Johnson had back-to-back kills to put the Spartans back up by two, 13-11. A 7-2 run put Sacred Heart in the lead, and the Pioneers pushed it to four, 23-19. Norfolk State called timeout and got to within one, 23-22, but kills from Dianis Mercado and Sarah Krufka gave Sacred Heart the set and the match.

Mercado had 20 kills for the Pioneers (6-6), while Krufka had 11. Johnson led NSU with 12 kills on a .300 attack percentage, and Frazier added nine. Jankauskaite and Jarema each added eight, and redshirt junior libero Noelle Eagles posted 15 digs.

Villanova (7-5) had little trouble with NSU in the first set of their match, as a late 8-0 run allowed the Wildcats to easily pull away at the end.

The Spartans kept it close in the second set, falling behind by just two before using a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. The Wildcats won 11 of the next 14 points for a six-point lead, and a few kills from Jankauskaite allowed NSU to keep it close the rest of the set.

In the third, a 9-1 run at the midway point put the Wildcats up by 11, and only a late 4-0 spurt by the Spartans kept the deficit in single digits.

Jankauskaite and junior Jasmin Flowers led NSU with eight and seven kills, respectively. Villanova hit .373, with Claire Crutchfield and Lauren Carpenter contributing 12 and 10 kills, respectively.

The Spartans will begin conference play next Friday as they host Hampton at 7 p.m. at Joseph Echols Hall.