Courtesy of North Carolina A&T State Athletic Communications
Box Score
DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina A&T State stayed perfect in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and won its fourth consecutive match with a three-set win (25-18, 25-21, 25-16) win over North Carolina Central for the second successive day at McDougald-McLendon Arena.
"We played another steady match today," associate head coach Blaine Tandler said. "Back-to-back matches against the same team are never easy, but we were pleased with the effort and execution of our game plan again today."
Junior right side hitter Fatimah Shabazz led the team with a game-high 15 kills and a .429 hitting percentage. She added two blocks. Senior outside hitter Courteney Pitt added 11 kills and a .400 hitting percentage. Senior setter Edie Brewer recorded a match-high 26 assists to go along with six kills and six digs.
Sophomore setter Addy Warfield posted 13 assists and four digs.
Back row players in juniors Andrea Laboy-Rivera and Nadia Montalban-El-Hiriche had 11 and nine digs, respectively. Laboy-Rivera added five assists. Junior Macenzie Richards finished with five kills and eight digs on a .625 hitting percentage. Junior Shaylynn Hall had five kills and three blocks on a .364 hitting percentage.
The Aggies (4-1, 4-0 MEAC) had a .337 hitting percentage for the match, while the Eagles (2-2, 2-2 MEAC) posted a .128 percentage.
A&T jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Eagles tied it at 6. NCCU took its first lead of the set at 8-7 on a Pitt attack error. The Aggies were still trailing 11-10 when they put together an 8-1 spurt to take an 18-12 lead. The Eagles never any closer than five the rest of the set as an Eagles attack error made it 24-16. After two straight points from NCCU, Pitt ended set No. 1 with a kill.
In set No. 2, the Eagles jumped out to a 10-8 lead. The Aggies offense started cranking from there. A&T scored on five kills during an 8-2 spurt that put them ahead 16-12. NCCU had an answer as they scored on four kills during a 5-2 outburst that made it an 18-17 set.
A&T finally took control with a 4-0 run fueled by two kills from Pitt. The Aggies gained a 24-20 lead on a Brewer kills. Ammaarah Williams kept NCCU alive with a kill, but an attack error from Yamaries Villegas gave the Aggies the 25-21 win in the second set.
A ball-handling error in the third set helped the Eagles tie the score 10-10. The Aggies put together the finishing touches from there. They went on a 6-0 run that included a kill and a solo block from Richards.
The Eagles never recovered. The Aggies lead grew to eight, 24-16, on another Richards kill. When Richards slapped down her third kill of the set, the Aggies posted another win.
"Serve receive and our defensive transition game were really good today, allowing us to improve our attack efficiency from yesterday to .337 today," Tendler said. "Fatimah Shabazz led us offensively this weekend with 26 kills and only five errors for an efficiency of .429."
Arlanda Faulkner led the Eagles with nine kills.