Final Stats

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- After brushing off the early morning jitters, the Hawks volleyball squad stormed ahead and then staved off a late surge by their opponent to clinch their second straight victory and earn a 2-0 start at the Aggie-Spartans Invitational. The victory improves the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's (UMES) record to 4-5 while their challengers, the Alabama A&M (AAMU) Bulldogs fall to 1-9. Furthermore, the Hawks eclipsed their 2013 win total with the triumph this afternoon.

Junior Ashley Smith (Huntley, Ill.) led the attack for UMES with her 12 kills, followed by senior Ksenia Sukhareva (Moscow, Russia) with 10. Sukhareva also delivered 16 digs with sophomore Allison Woods (Magnolia, Tex.) supplying 14. The Hawks completed nine aces as a team, and Sukhareva alone powered five aces alone.

Early on in the match AAMU looked very formidable. From the first serve, the Bulldogs immediately jumped out to an early lead of 11-7 before the Hawks went on a 5-0 run behind two kills by freshman Kirstin Fink (Tucson, Ariz.) to gain the upper hand. However, the Bulldogs quickly fought back and suppressed every Hawk comeback to take the first set by a score of 25-23.

Set two was tight most of the way through with both sides trading off points until the Hawks broke away in the final third of the set. The Hawks benefited from a service ace by Sonia Rosales (Victorville, Calif.) and two kills from freshman Alana Polk (Houston, Tex.) which allowed the Hawks to finish the set on a 9-3 run, ultimately winning by the score of 25-18.

Much like last night's contest versus N.C. A&T, the third set belonged exclusively to the Hawks. After falling behind 4-1 early, Sukhareva took the reins as the server and helped the team storm back with an 8-0 run with three of her five service aces. Rosales knocked out AAMU with an ace of her own to win the set convincingly, 25-11.

DÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ'ââ'¬Â '©jÃÆ'Æ'Æ'ÃÆ'ââ'¬Â '  vu almost reared its head in set four as well, but the Hawks would not falter to force a fifth set. When the Hawks jumped out to a 14-9 lead, it began to look like a big set win was in the cards again for UMES. But the Bulldogs would not go down so easily to tie the score at 19. The teams traded points, culminating in a 23-23 deadlock before the Hawks would finally put away the match. Fink delivered two serves--the first was touched out of bounds thanks to a block by sophomore Haley Robinson (Honolulu, Hawaii) and senior Lauren Berry (Bloomington, Ill.) and the final point was also touched out of bounds by the Bulldogs to give the Hawks the set and match, 25-23.

UNC Greensboro will be the final matchup for the Hawks in this weekend's Aggie-Spartans Invitational. First serve tonight is scheduled for 6pm on UNCG's campus.