A&T STATISTICAL LEADERS: OH Naiya Sawtelle (12 kills, 6 digs, 2 blocks, 1 ace), S Edie Brewer (15 assists, 7 digs, 2 kills). 

UCONN STATISTICAL LEADERS: Caylee Parker (11 kills, 9 digs), Taylor Pannell (10 kills, 3 blocks), McKayla Wuensch (28 assists), Karly Berkland (11 digs).

WHY A&T DID NOT GET THE W: The Aggies finished with a .024 hitting percentage but spent most of the match hitting in the negatives. They had 24 kills and 22 attack errors on the night. 

WHY UCONN GOT THE W: The Huskies Caylee Parker and Taylor Parnell were an unstoppable duo at the net Saturday night. Parnell did not make an attack error in 14 attempts to record a .714 hitting percentage. Klaudia Sowizral also contributed with four kills, no attack errors in five attempts for a .800 hitting percentage. The trio combined for 25 kills and three attack errors on 43 attempts for a .512 hitting percentage. 

CRUCIAL: A&T was facing a challenging task on Saturday. The Aggies were facing a worthy opponent in UConn, but they were also grieving the loss of a loved one in teammate Fatimah Shabazz who died last Sunday. Nevertheless, they showed great character and bravery in playing in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) tournament. 

CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. – In perhaps the most challenging week of their lives, the North Carolina A&T volleyball team courageously played in Saturday's NIVC tournament match against the UConn Huskies. 

The Huskies ended A&T's season, 3-0 (25-12, 14, 19) on the campus of Boston College. But just for the Aggies to step on the court after beloved teammate, Fatimah Shabazz died last Sunday was a victory. Shabazz had been a part of the Aggie family for five years, so her loss was impactful from an emotional standpoint and a competitive one. 

The tears flowed from the Aggie volleyball players even before Saturday's match. The scene before the match made it evident, statistics, sideouts and rotations did not matter as much as a team playing in honor of their sister. 

"It was a tough couple of weeks for our program, but I am proud of our girls putting on their knee pads and putting on their jerseys and representing A&T," said A&T coach Hal Clifton. "It was a lot of different emotions going on, but I thought we played well at times."

The Aggies saw their 2021 season end at 20-11. A&T struggled early on to get into a rhythm. Seven of UConn's first 11 points came on either an Aggie attack error or service error as the Huskies led 11-4. The Aggies committed six attack errors and had a .-050 hitting percentage in the first set as the Huskies ended the set on a 6-2 run to take a 1-0 match lead. 

UConn jumped out to a 19-7 lead in the second set before a Jasmine Davis kill ended the set for the Huskies, who now owned a 2-0 lead in the match. 

A 4-0 Aggies run in the third set helped A&T tie the set at 13 to keep their hopes alive. However, UConn responded with a 5-1 run to take an 18-14 lead. Freshman Naiya Sawtelle (Stuart, Fla.) answered with a kill to get the Aggies to within three, but the Aggies never got any closer. 

A Caylee Parker kill gave UConn match and set point at 24-18. Sawtelle's kill kept the match going before Parker advanced the Huskies with a kill to end the match. UConn (22-10) advances to play host-school Boston College. 

The Aggies will say goodbye to seniors Shaylynn Hall (Raleigh, N.C.), Macenzie Richards (Pickerington, Ohio), Nadia Montalban-El-Hirichie (Granada, Spain) and Andrea Laboy-Rivera (Coamo, Puerto Rico). 

A&T had three players – Edie Brewer (West Chester, Ohio), Shabazz (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Courteney Pitt (Farmville, N.C.) – returned for a fifth season thanks to the additional year granted by the NCAA because of the COVID pandemic. 

Only one played Saturday night in Brewer after Pitt sustained a season-ending knee injury earlier this season. The trio will go down as one of the most significant. In the spring of 2021, they led A&T volleyball to the program's first-ever conference tournament championship and its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. 

Brewer is a two-time conference player of the year, Pitt is a three-time first-team all-conference performer and Shabazz led the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in kills in the spring of 21 while earning first-team All-MEAC accolades. 

QUOTABLE: "We weren't able to be consistent long enough tonight. I told our girls to keep their heads up. They had a great season. There was no reason for them to be completely disappointed in what happened tonight."

Head Coach Hal Clifton on the Aggies match against UConn

GAME NOTES

• The Aggies finish the season with 20 wins, the most under head coach Hal Clifton and the most since 2005.  
• Naiya Sawtelle's 12 kills give her 396 kills this season to move up into sixth-most in a single season in school history.
• Mallory Porcher recorded a block assist, giving her 149 career block assists to break a 10th place tie in school history.
• UConn wins the first match between the two schools.
• A&T played in its third consecutive postseason bid in school history (2019 NIVC), (2020 NCAA), (2021 NIVC)  
• UConn advances to face host Boston College Sunday at 4 p.m. in the second round of the NIVC.