Nov. 14, 2004

Durham, NC - The opening game of pool play for the Lady Rams volleyball team at the 2003 CIAA Volleyball Championship would see WSSU square off against the number one seed in the CIAA Eastern Division, the Shaw University Lady Bears.

The Lady Rams and Lady Bears are no stranger to one another as the two teams met during the regular season on October 28th, 2003 in Winston-Salem, NC with the Lady Rams coming away with the 3-2 match victory, needing a tie-breaker to secure the win by the score of 30-27; 26-30; 30-28; 30-26.

Friday morning's match was much the same as the two teams' previous meeting as they battled back and forth all match long. The Lady Rams, behind the solid play of Chasity Clark (Jr./5'10"/OH/Winston-Salem, NC) earned a first-game victory, sneaking past the Lady Bears, 30-27.

The second game would go in the other direction as Shaw was able to secure the 30-26 win to tie the match at one game each. A host of WSSU errors, most of them on the attacking end, would prove costly as the Lady Rams gave away far too many easy points, eventually dropping the decision in favor of the Lady Bears.

The third game was another close one as the Lady Rams found themselves trailing 26-27 late in the game. After a time-out, the Lady Rams were able to come out and reel off three straight points to lead 29-27, and found themselves in need of only one more point to snatch the win from the jaws of defeat in the third game. After a Shaw timeout, the Lady Bears rallied to score a single point, and gain momentum back, but Clark ended the Bears' comeback bid as she powered home a kill that ended the game with a 30-28 WSSU advantage.

The fourth game set itself up to be another marathon match, with the Lady Rams playing catch-up for most of its duration. WSSU trailed 21-17 late, and rallied to tie at 21-21. Shaw would reel off three straight points to lead 24-21, and the Lady Rams jumped ahead to lead 26-25, looking to put the game away. The Lady Bears fought hard for another point, yet the Lady Rams tallied another marker, staying one point ahead. It would be Janessa Webb (Fr./S/5'5"/Anchorage, AK) who would put the finishing touches on a Lady Ram victory when her knuckling serve found the floor to end the game 30-26 with an ace.

With the victory, the Lady Rams improve to 12-17 overall and move on to face CIAA arch-rival North Carolina Central University at 1:00 pm in the Walker Physical Education complex on the campus of NC Central University.