DURHAM, N.C. — Junior outside hitter Arlanda Faulkner posted a .471 hitting percentage with a team-high nine kills for the North Carolina Central University volleyball team in a 3-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) home loss to North Carolina A&T State University Friday evening inside McDougald-McLendon Arena.
 
Senior setter Edie Brewer, the MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, recorded a kill on game point in narrow first and third sets to help lift the Aggies to the 25-23, 25-13, 25-22 victory. Brewer finished with nine kills, 20 assists, seven digs and two aces.
 
Faulkner ripped her nine kills on just 17 attempts with only one error. She added one of NCCU's two aces for a team-best 10 points.
 
Freshman setter Lauren Janok tallied 20 assists to reach the 20-plus assists plateau in each of her first three collegiate matches with the maroon and gray. Senior libero Yomaries Villegas paced NCCU's defense with nine digs. Junior middle blocker Ammaarah Williams chipped in four kills and four block assists.
 
A kill by Williams capped a 6-2 run by the Eagles to pull within 24-23 of the first set before a Brewer kill ended the narrow two-point set victory by the Aggies.
 
N.C. A&T (3-1 Overall, 3-0 MEAC) started the middle set on a 9-1 run. Senior Courteney Pitt tallied five of her nine kills in the frame as the visitors secured the 12-point set triumph.
 
A kill by Janok had the Eagles leading 15-14 past the midway point of the third set before the Aggies won six of the next nine serves to pull ahead by three. N.C. A&T would maintain the lead and win by that same margin to close out the match. Brewer's kill on match point was her fifth spike of the set.
 
The Aggies had a .245 team hitting average compared to NCCU's .071. Junior libero Andrea Laboy-Rivera and junior Nadia Montalban-El Hiriche helped N.C. A&T keep the Eagles to their lowest hitting percentage of the season with 11 and nine digs, respectively.
 
Junior Fatimah Shabazz topped the Aggies with 12 kills, including a match-high 11 kills and two block assists.
 
Junior Jasmine Sanders matched Williams will four kills for the Eagles, junior Celene Morris tallied seven digs and sophomore Alyssa Pieh totaled five digs and one ace.
 
NC Central (2-1, 2-1) will try and avenge its first loss of the season when the Eagles host N.C. A&T again on Saturday at 4 p.m.