Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team gave it a ride in the first two sets against West Virginia in the Mountaineer Invitational, but the Spartans ultimately dropped a pair of 3-0 contests to WVU and Navy at the WVU Coliseum on Friday afternoon.

NSU (1-4) fared well against West Virginia in the early going, dropping the first two sets by narrow margins of 25-22 and 25-23 in an early afternoon contest. The Mountaineers (4-0) came out of the break following the second set and cruised to a 25-11 win in the third.

Then in a late afternoon tilt with Navy (2-3), NSU saw late leads dissipate in the first two sets, and the Midshipmen went on to win by scores of 25-21, 26-24, 25-18.

In the Spartans' first match of the tournament, Big 12 member West Virginia was just unable to pull away from NSU in those first two sets. The Spartans matched WVU point-for-point for nearly the entirety of both.

Tied up throughout the early part of the first set, the Mountaineers built a two-point lead at 10-8 only to see it disappear when NSU won four straight points. Junior Jasmin Flowers had two blocks in that four-serve stretch, but WVU took the lead right back. The teams traded the lead before the Mountaineers went up by two again. The Spartans tied it up several more times, the last at 20-all on a kill from sophomore Jessica Johnson.

West Virginia won three straight points following that play by Johnson, and NSU was unable to recover.

The Spartans did recover in time for the second set, using a few West Virginia errors to take an early 4-1 lead. The Mountaineers won four straight to take the lead back, but again the teams jockeyed back and forth for the lead. Up 7-5, West Virginia could not get back to that two-point advantage until midway through the set at 15-13.

Freshman Tori Tulensru added a couple of kills to keep NSU in the set, but the Spartans called a timeout down 19-17 after two straight errors. Two attack errors on WVU tied it up at 20-20, and NSU got to within one at 23-22 and then again at 24-23 on a kill by Tulensru. Jordan Anderson, though, knocked down one of her 15 kills in the match to finish the second set for WVU.

Senior Goda Jankauskaite had eight kills to lead NSU, with Johnson (seven) and Flowers and senior Coralie Jarema (six apiece) also contributing. Sophomore Darcy Moore handed out 31 assists, and redshirt junior Noelle Eagles tallied 14 digs.

Up just 7-5 in the third, the Mountaineers won seven straight points to put NSU in too deep of a hole in the final stanza.

West Virginia hit .385 in the third set and .220 overall. NSU attacked at a .124 clip and also came out on the wrong end of a 7-1 WVU advantage in service aces.

The Spartans then looked to rebound against Navy, and in the early part of the match it seemed NSU would do just that. The Spartans took a 7-2 lead to start, and after the Midshipmen came back to take a 13-12 lead, NSU won five straight points to force a Navy timeout. After a kill from Tulensru and a Navy error made it 20-16 in favor of the Spartans, though, the Midshipmen responded by winning nine of the last 10 points of the set.

It was rinse and repeat for NSU in the second set, too. A kill from sophomore Angie Darcus put the Spartans up 10-6, but the Midshipmen fought back to eventually tie it up at 14-14. Navy called timeout down 18-15, and then Darcus had a kill and service ace a little later to give NSU a 23-20 lead. Again, the Midshipmen had an answer late, winning six of the last seven points.

Then in the third, some early back-and-forth play turned to NSU's favor with the Spartans ahead, 13-11, after winning four straight. The Midshipmen won 10 of 12 after that point, and a 21-15 deficit was too much for NSU.

Jarema and Tulensru had six kills each to lead NSU. The Spartans hit -.057 for the match.

NSU will face Fordham and Canisius on Saturday during the second day of the tournament.