Nov. 4, 2008

Final Stats

DURHAM, NC - "EAGLES WIN, EAGLES WIN!" Those were the words from the public address announcer as the Eagles of North Carolina Central University defeated arch rival Aggies of North Carolina A&T State University 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 19-25, 25-20, 19-17), on Tuesday night in McLendon-McDougald Gym.

A school record volleyball crowd of 874 witnessed the dramatic come-from-behind victory during the event tagged, "Bump, Set... VOTE."

In game one the Eagles took a commanding lead of 6-1 before the Aggies fought back to tie the game 10 all. NCAT led only one time, but the Eagles turned thing around to win 25-20. The Eagles in game one hit a blistering percentage of .294 with 18 kills on 34 attempts.

"This was a big win for us," said NCCU Head Coach Georgette Crawford-Crooks. "The ladies worked very hard and found a way to take games four and five." Sets two and three both went to Aggies. Outside hitter Tiffany Mellette was on fire to lead her team to two set victories.

No one knows what was said in the locker room, but NCCU came out and played with heart and did not want to go down. The Eagles won the last two sets using the domination of their outside and middle hitters of Avaniki Campbell, Nadia Hayes, Aqiyla Gomez and Shantel Moore. The Eagles pulled out the win in the fifth, and final, game of the match.

Campbell had a match-high of 21 kills, while Hayes contributed 12 kills, and Gomez and Moore had 10 kills each. Kristan Fields had 32 assists and Ashley Shade collected 29 assists. Rachel Lloyd had 23 digs, with Raven King had a career high with 13 digs.

The Eagles took set five down to the wire NCCU played the comeback kids, showing that they know how to win late.

"This win means a lot for NCCU volleyball" said Crawford-Crooks. The support from the cheerleaders, the band and other students and fans in the record-setting crowd propelled the Eagles to a season series split with the rival Aggies.