WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team suffered a pair of losses on Saturday during the second day of the Colonial Classic. The Spartans fell by 3-0 margins to Savannah State and then host William & Mary at Kaplan Arena.
 
SSU earned the win via scores of 25-21, 25-18 and 25-21 in a late afternoon match. The Spartans then dropped an evening contest to the Tribe by similar scores, 25-23, 25-21 and 25-19.
 
Junior Anna Rupertova earned a spot on the all-tournament team, thanks in part to a 16-kill effort against the Tigers. She hit .314 with seven digs as NSU hit a season-best .200 in its first match of the day.
 
Savannah State (1-7), however, hit .308 and held an 11-6 advantage in service aces. NSU ultimately fell to 0-8 on the season after the completion of the tournament.
 
The Tigers made runs from the middle of each set on. It happened in the second stanza after the Spartans had tied the score at 10-10 on kill from junior Bojana Bolozan. SSU's 8-1 run after that point made it a seven-point Tiger lead. The Spartans did win five of six a little later, including a couple of kills from Rupertova, before SSU went up 2-0 in the match.
 
The third set was much the same way. NSU won four of the first five points before the Tigers won seven of the next eight. Then a solo block by Bolozan ended a 6-2 run and put the Spartans ahead, 11-10. But several serves later, the Tigers started an 8-1 run to go up 20-14. Rupertova had a pair of kills during a short 4-0 spurt for the Spartans that forced two SSU timeouts, but the Tigers won the last three points for the four-point win.
 
In the first set, junior Halley McKnight had three straight service aces as NSU eventually went up 11-9. The teams went back and forth for a while, but with the score tied at 19-19 after another Rupertova kill, Savannah State won six of the last eight points for the early 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Salma Gonzalez totaled 11 kills for the Tigers, while Oneillia Fuller and Tyran Chenault combined for 15. All three hit better than .450, while Gonzalez finished with a triple double of 12 assists and 11 digs.
 
For William & Mary (4-5), Kate Dedrick led the way with 16 kills on a .393 attack percentage. The Tribe hit .141 compared to .103 for NSU, and the Spartans had two less attack errors on the night. They again had five less service aces than the opponent, however, 7-2.
 
Rupertova led the way with seven kills and 11 digs. Sophomore Jannel Ezeagwu tallied a career-high six blocks as well.
 
NSU came closest in the first set. They fell behind by a 7-1 score, and later by a 12-4 margin. The Spartans still trailed by eight at 16-8 before making a furious comeback. They won six of the next seven points and later cut the margin to two thanks again to Rupertova. Sophomore Quiana Griffin had back-to-back kills that helped them eventually go up, 23-22.
 
The Tribe then got a pair of kills from Anne Seekford and used an attack error from the Spartans to take the early lead.
 
The Spartans gave it a ride in the second set too. They fell behind by a 5-1 score before running off an 8-1 run for a 9-6 lead. Rupertova had a pair of kills and a block during that surge. But the Tribe responded, eventually going up 16-13. The Spartans had an answer with five straight points, but the Tigers turned right around and won five in a row too.
 
Down by three at that point, NSU was unable to pull off the comeback despite getting two more kills from Griffin. She finished with six in the match while hitting .385.
 
William & Mary slowly pulled away in the third, eventually taking a six-point lead at 21-15. The Spartans won four in a row to make it interesting before the Tribe won the last four points of the tournament.
 
Norfolk State will head to Washington, D.C. next weekend to take part in the George Mason Classic.