Box Score

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Maryland Eastern Shore stayed perfect in MEAC play with a 3-0 sweep of the Norfolk State volleyball team Friday night at the W.P. Hytche Center. The loss, though, did not hurt NSU's chances of advancing to the MEAC tournament next week.

Coupled with Howard's 3-0 loss to Morgan State and Delaware State's 3-1 loss to Hampton Friday night, NSU just needs to defeat Delaware State on Sunday to lock up fourth place in the MEAC Northern Division and thus the fourth seed from the North in the MEAC tournament.

Freshman Saitaua Iosia led the Hawk attack with 21 kills on a .514 hitting percentage against the Spartans as UMES cruised to a 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 victory over NSU. The loss dropped the Spartans to 5-6 in conference play and 9-15 overall. UMES improved to 20-6 overall, 11-0 in the MEAC.

Howard fell to 4-7 in conference play, while sixth-place Delaware State now stands 3-8.

Junior Beatriz Ferreira tallied 10 kills on a .269 attack percentage to lead NSU, while freshman Adriana Ramos and senior Jasmine Frazier tallied seven and six kills, respectively. Junior Kristen Burt posted 24 assists, and senior Tracey Copley had a team-high eight digs. Junior Charlotte Armstead added four blocks.

The Hawks hit .373 as a team on the night, with Maline Vaitai joining Iosia in double figures with 12 kills. Jessica Vicic dished out 38 assists, and Rebecca Prado and Zoe Bowens each tallied 10 digs. Vicic also had a match-high five blocks.

NSU attacked at a .118 clip for the night, but UMES led in digs (35-24), blocks (8-6) and service aces (8-1). Vaitai had three of those services aces.

The Spartans found themselves down early, 8-3, to start the match, but Armstead tallied a block and a kill as NSU was able to close to three, 10-7. A 5-0 run by the Hawks pushed their lead to eight, and the closest NSU got the rest of the way was on a kill and block by Ferreira on back-to-back plays to make it 16-10. Ferreira added two straight kills near the end of the set, her fourth and fifth up to that point, before UMES won, 25-17.

Down 6-2 in the second set, NSU cut it to two, 6-4, but then the Hawks ran off five straight points to stretch their lead to seven, 11-4. The Spartans got as close as four at 18-14 when Frazier added a kill and service ace followed by two straight attack errors on the Hawks. A kill from Ferreira and another UMES attack error again made it a four-point set, 22-19, but the Spartans could not get over the hump as UMES took the second set, 25-20.

NSU had to call timeout down 10-5 in the third set, as the Spartans scored two straight points just once during the first half of the set. NSU rallied down by eight, 17-9, as two kills from Ramos and another from Armstead capped a 5-1 run that closed the gap to four, 18-14. UMES scored seven of the next eight points to put away the Spartans, 25-15.

NSU will wrap up the regular season Sunday at Delaware State at 3 p.m. attempting to grab the fourth and final spot in the MEAC tournament from the Northern Division.