Eagles finish volleyball tourney strong

There isn't a better feeling than starting the season with a sweep of a conference foe. The feeling is greater after losing all three meetings against that team the previous year.

The N.C. Central Eagles swept the Pirates of Hampton University (25-16, 25-23, 25-19) on Sunday at the McDougald-McLendon gymnasium in Durham, N.C. finishing the NCCU Volleyball Invitational with a 1-4 record.

After a dismal showing in the first four games of the NCCU Volleyball Invitational the Eagles built the motivation to destroy the Hampton University Pirates.

"It's always added motivation when facing a conference opponent," Head Coach Georgette Crawford-Crooks said.

"This year playing them [Hampton] was a little revenge, but we also wanted to come out and see where we were as a team."

Crawford-Crooks got exactly what she wanted in this match. The Eagles won the first set convincingly 25-16 after scoring the first 6 points of the set. The 2nd set saw many rallies and the Eagles showed resilience. They came back to win the set despite being down 16-13 midway through. Sophomore Outside Hitter Dayana Arrufat triggered the run scoring three times in a row to tie the score at 16, she finished with a match-high 15 kills. The Eagles easily won the 3rd and final set 25-19 to earn the sweep.

"We started out strong, we played good defense which we try to do every game," Arrufat said.

Coach Crawford-Crooks knows that defense will get the Eagles to where they want to be.

"Offense wins games, defense wins championships," she said.

"For us, we're looking to go to a championship so one of the key things we want to be the strongest is our defense."

The Eagles will continue their route to a championship next week when they travel to Burlington, N.C. on Friday, Aug. 31 to participate in the Elon Phoenix Classic taking on the University of Alabama, Elon University and Gardner-Webb University.