PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland – It was an uneasy night for the Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball team on Friday, October 21 at the Hytche Athletic Center against visiting Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rival Norfolk State. The Hawks (5-14, 3-5 MEAC) forced five sets against the Spartans (5-12, 5-2 MEAC) but fell 2-3 by scores of 16-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-10 and 9-15 in the two squads second meeting of the season.
 
"We weren't the most competitive team today," head coach Trevor Callarman said. "The reality is we didn't come into the first set with the energy we needed and there's no reason we should have lost the third set, we gotta close out with the lead we had."
 
There was little working for the Hawks in the first set as Callarman mentioned, with the squad looking lackluster and quickly letting Norfolk take control. The closest Maryland Eastern Shore would get was a one-point deficit at 8-9 before Norfolk broke things open with a 9-1 run to ground any effort against them.
 
"When the first serve goes in that first set, we should be ready and we should be aggressive," Callarman said.
 
With the first set in their rearview mirror, the Hawks looked to bounce back in the second and caused a true back-and-forth that saw a strong Maryland Eastern Shore comeback. With seven ties and four lead changes, the Hawks were on the winning side to tie things up thanks to a strong late set offense.
 
Down 9-13, the Hawks were able to rattle off three straight points and then trade with the Spartans to lock it up 19-all when Norfolk committed an attack error following a Derionah Abner kill. The Hawks kept the pressure up, eventually taking the set off a setter dump by Sophia Chacon.
 
"I don't know if we had that much more of a different mentality in the second set, we played just a little bit cleaner," Callarman said. "The big thing there was that we didn't error ourselves out of that game."
 
Things had seemed to change after taking the second, with the Hawks jumping out to a huge 14-8 lead and keeping distance up to 16-10 until things began to fall apart. Norfolk would eventually take the lead at 18-19 on an ace before Callarman called a timeout, inducing a service error.
 
The timeout wasn't enough, as the Hawks committed two errors and allowed two aces to let the Spartans complete the mid-match comeback.
 
"That was lack of focus in the moment," Callarman said. "Reception errors, aces from the other team. That's the one that keeps you up at night, that's one you want back."
 
Against the wall, the Hawks played possibly their most complete set in the fourth, absolutely dominating in all facets of the game and giving Norfolk nearly no chance to get an attack going. Maryland Eastern Shore sided out in ten of eleven chances, out hit the Spartans by more than .300 and out blocked Norfolk four-to-one.
 
Norfolk was able to stay in the set until the Hawks tied it up at six and went on a tear with Chacon serving, grabbing six points and the senior tallying three assists in that span. Alexis Lee and Abner also helped fuel runs from the service line to tie the match up at 2-2.
 
"That set in general I was proud of the way they played, and I hope they were proud," Callarman said. "They served aggressive, they minimized their errors, they blocked well, slowed things down and proved the quality of volleyball they can play."
 
Despite the momentum seemingly in the Hawks favor, nothing clicked in the fifth and final set, dropping points early and seeing themselves down by five points until they could find some footing.
 
"In the fifth set we got into a little bit of a hole early on, we had some moments where we were presented with opportunities to chip back away and we didn't take advantage of it," Callarman said. "It comes down to competitiveness, volleyball is a game of errors and errors are going to happen."
 
While the Hawks were able to chip away late, the Spartans grabbed three straight points and a spike from the right side finished the match to give Norfolk the regular season series.
 
The loss drops the Hawks to sixth in the conference with six games remaining before the MEAC Tournament where Callarman hopes to see Norfolk for a third time.
 
"We scored more points than them (in both matches) but not at the right times, that's just a competitive thing," Callarman said. "I hope we get another shot at them, maybe in the conference championships depending on how the cards fall and we just have to make sure we're the more competitive team that day."
 
The Hawks led Norfolk in all statistical categories except in two key categories, aces and attack errors, an issue Maryland Eastern Shore continues to work through. It wasn't all lost for the Hawks, with student-athletes slowly progressing in the system and the coaching staff seeing advancements.
 
"As a coach you see some things we worked on in practice and you see them implement it, you go 'that is a great moment', you feel great for the kid," Callarman said.
 
Charlize Williams continues her tear of the MEAC, walking out of the Hytche with 14 kills at a .314 hitting percentage that puts her seventh in the conference. She also added an assist and 2.5 blocks on the night, leading both teams.
 
Splitting serving duties were Chacon (24 assists) and Romina Vacca (14 assists), continuing the rotation Callarman and associate head coach Feldman have in order. Valeria Matias was absolutely phenomenal as a defensive specialist, getting 18 digs as just a three-rotation player.
 
The Hawks are back in action on Sunday (October 23) in Washington, DC as they head to Howard at 1 p.m. against the preseason favorites. Currently the Bison (13-7, 6-1 MEAC) sit at second in the conference behind Delaware State and took the first meeting between the squads 3-1 in Princess Anne.
 
Follow the action on Twitter via @ESHawksVBall.