Box Score
Mitchell has career-match in loss to UNCW

ELON, September 5, 2008 – Before the 2008 season, junior Janae Mitchell was a player who saw limited action as a freshman and a player who was a reserve outside hitter as a sophomore. This season, the North Carolina A&T volleyball team not only needed her to be a starter, but a player who provided an offensive impact.

She started down that road on Friday as she slammed down a career-high 11 kills and a career-best hitting percentage of .474. Unfortunately, it was not enough as the Aggies lost to UNC Wilmington 3-0 (25-18, 20, 18) in the first day of Elon University’s Phoenix Volleyball Classic. Williams continued her great season with eight kills, three blocks and a .429 hitting percentage.

“We had some nice performances today,’’ said head coach Lyndsay Schmiedel. “I thought we showed a lot of improvement from a couple of days ago. As long as we keep progressing as team, the wins will come.”

The Aggies came into Friday’s match with a .048 hitting percentage for the season. That low number was driven down by a -.03 hitting percentage on Wednesday against UNC Greensboro. But the Aggies had a season-best .170 hitting percentage, which included a .222 hitting percentage in the third game.

N.C. A&T’s best showing on offense led it to a 12-9 lead over the Seahawks in the third game. The Seahawks scored the next two points before Mitchell crushed a kill to give the Aggies a 13-11 lead. But back-to-back errors helped UNCW tie the game at 13. The Seahawks went on to take a 16-13 lead on two Aggie attack errors and a kill by Rachael Caricato.

Another Mitchell kill moved the Aggies to within one at 16-15. But the Seahawks put together an 8-1 run fueled by three service aces to put the Aggies away. N.C. A&T dropped to 0-5 on the season, and will go after win No. 1 on Saturday when they face host Elon at 12:30 p.m., and Campbell at 4:30 p.m., to conclude the classic.