PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Strong efforts by seniors Jessica Johnson and Dominique Parker carried the Norfolk State volleyball team to its first win of the year, a 3-0 defeat of South Carolina State early Friday afternoon at the UMES Courtyard Classic.
 
Later in the day, American University got a 19-kill performance from Aleksandra Kazala in a 3-0 sweep of the Spartans at UMES' W.P. Hytche Athletic Center.
 
Johnson had 13 kills against S.C. State, a match the Spartans won by scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-22, as she went over 700 for her career. She added 10 kills in the late afternoon contest against American, which defeated NSU, 25-19, 25-15 and 25-23.
 
Parker, meanwhile, tallied 12 kills on 23 swings, finishing with a .478 attack percentage against the Bulldogs. She also added three blocks. Then in the second match, senior Sydney Dailey added eight kills on a .438 attack percentage as NSU fell to 1-5 overall on the year.
 
The Spartans got off to fast starts in the first two sets against S.C. State (0-5), building leads of 8-5 and 5-1, respectively. Both times, the Bulldogs battled back to go ahead by one. It was a 4-0 run in the first set, and a 6-1 run in the second set that allowed S.C. State to take momentary leads. They did not last, though.
 
In the first set, Johnson had back-to-back kills to end a 10-3 spurt that put NSU comfortably ahead, 18-12. Even after scoring three straight late in the set, S.C. State still trailed by a 23-19 margin. NSU finished off that first stanza, and the Spartans scored two, three and sometimes four straight points to erase the Bulldogs' lead in the second.
 
Johnson and Parker combined for 12 kills in the middle set, one in which S.C. State never got closer than five the latter half of the set. In the third, the Spartans found themselves down 7-5 before winning eight of the next nine points. The Bulldogs chipped away to eventually tie the score at 15-15, but not until they were down 24-19 did S.C. State finally score at least two straight points again.
 
The Spartans finished the match with a .273 attack percentage while holding S.C. State to a .024 percentage, including 22 kills and 20 errors.
 
Freshman Jill Aquino had 26 assists, and junior Melvina Brown tallied 13 digs in her first career match at NSU.
 
Johnson hit .182 in the second match of the day, and Brown added 12 more digs to her season tally. American (5-2), though, had 47 kills in just three sets and hit .330.
 
Despite the third set having a closer score at the end, NSU got off to a better start in the first set. The Spartans won six of the first seven points of the match. The Eagles slowly crept back, turning a 13-12 deficit into a 15-13 lead and never looking back. The Spartans never scored two straight the rest of the way.
 
The Spartans did not gain a lead early in the third, although they did tie the score at 7-7 after winning four straight, including two kills from Johnson. The teams went back and forth and played a fairly even set, with neither team going up by more than two the rest of the way. NSU led three different times, the last at 22-21 after a kill by Johnson and a service ace from Aquino.
 
A couple of late blocks, however, helped American win four of the last five points of the match.
 
The second set was a different story. The Eagles led 11-5 in the blink of an eye, and after two kills from Johnson and one from junior Hope Forsythe made it 15-13, American won seven straight to essentially end the set.
 
Kazala had nine of her 19 kills in the third set. Teammate Aleksandra Sochacka added nine kills on 16 swings, and Kristen Largay totaled 17 digs.
 
NSU hit .123 for the match and had 22 less kills than American, whose biggest weakness was a match total of 12 service errors compared to just four for the Spartans.
 
NSU will compete against Navy on Saturday at 5 p.m. before finishing out the tournament Sunday at 2 p.m. against host UMES.