Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Norfolk State University Athletics

The Official Site of the Norfolk State Spartans
Nav wordmark
Green Tops Gold in Annual Intrasquad Scrimmage, 3-2
Women's Volleyball /

Green Tops Gold in Annual Intrasquad Scrimmage, 3-2

NORFOLK, Va. – Green fell behind after one set but stormed back to win the next three on the way to a 3-2 victory over Gold during Norfolk State volleyball's annual intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at Gill Gymnasium.
 
Gold earned a 25-20 advantage in set 1, only to watch Green win the next three stanzas, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-20. The teams predetermined before the match to play all five sets. Gold, which had switched to white jerseys by then, got a measure of revenge late by winning that fifth and final set in extra points, 20-18.
 
Sophomore Daiysa Burrell led Green as well as all players with 16 kills. Senior Clarke Tyler added 11 kills and four blocks, while junior Anna Rupertova and freshman Jannel Ezeagwu each added seven kills for Green. Ezeagwu also tied Tyler with a match-high four blocks.
 
Freshman Taylor Eichelberger totaled 11 kills, while freshman teammate Jazmine Craig and senior Hope Forsythe each posted nine to lead Gold.
 
Ezeagwu sparked Green's first rally early in the second set with a block and a kill for the first two points. Burrell and Rupertova each had a pair of kills as the lead eventually reached six. Another kill from Ezeagwu and a service ace from sophomore Jill Aquino pushed the lead to nine at 16-7, and Burrell had three more kills as the set wore on for the final 11-point win.
 
Green finished with 14 service aces in the match compared to just four for Gold. Sophomore Ashley Patterson had four of those for Green, while senior Melvina Brown and freshman Destine Hooker each tallied three.
 
But it was Burrell who really started to carry Green. She had four kills at the start of the third set for an early 5-1 lead. Gold came back behind kills from four different players, but Green always held at least a one-point lead. Burrell and Tyler combined to score five of six points in the match during the middle stretch of the set, and several errors on Gold helped stretch the final lead to eight.
 
Green then won the match with its fourth-set victory. That only came after falling behind by a five-point margin to start. Eichelberger and Craig led Gold, which switched to White jerseys prior to the start of the set, with several kills. Green came back, with Brown stroking a couple of aces and then Aquino adding another one for Green's first lead at 16-15. Ezeagwu had two more kills, and Hooker added an ace and a kill late to seal the victory.
 
Gold, though, did show plenty of promise in the opening and closing sets. It trailed only once in the first set, and rookies Eichelberger and Craig carried the offense. Still, the lead never went past three until a late surge, when sophomore Jessica Radford's kill made it 20-14 and capped a 5-0 run. The lead shrank to two before Radford and Forsythe added two more kills on the way to the first-set win.
 
Gold/White had to overcome a 9-6 deficit in the fifth set. Errors on Green certainly helped, as did two kills from senior Tori Tulensru. Down 14-10 and facing set point, Green got kills from Burrell and Ezeagwu and two errors from White to tie the score at 14-all.
 
Each team had set serve twice but failed to come away with the next point to end the set. Then finally with the score 18-18, Craig landed a kill and an error on Green finally gave White the extra point win.
 
For Green, Patterson had four kills and Hooker added two. Gold got four kills each from Tulensru and freshmen Quiana Griffin and Clara Kick and three from Radford.
 
NSU will have two more weeks of preparation before starting the season on Sept. 1 against Saint Francis (Pa.) in the Crosstown Invitational hosted by Lafayette and Lehigh.
Print Friendly Version