Lady Vikings win first CIAA volleyball championship

April Emory
November 10, 2008

Tournament MVP Eva Johnson tallied 13 kills and 20 digs as the Elizabeth City State Lady Vikings captured the first volleyball championship in school history, upending defending champion Fayetteville State University in five sets (25-20, 17-25, 18-25, 25-16, 15-8) Sunday afternoon at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton Virginia. In addition to securing ECSU’s first ever CIAA Volleyball crown, the Lady Vikings now qualify for the school’s first ever post season appearance with an automatic bid as the conference champions. The playoff field will be announced Sunday November 16th at 10 p.m. eastern time and will be streamlined live online at www.ncaa.com. Post season play will begin either November 20-22 or 21-23. The Lady Vikings (31-9) took the first set of Sunday’s competition but two sets later found themselves trailing 2-1 entering game four. Then with the score 4-3 in favor of ECSU, a lineup discrepancy paused the match for nearly ten minutes. After that was cleared up the Lady Vikings took control by reeling off four consecutive points, seizing the momentum and subsequently the fourth set to force a fifth and deciding rally set. ECSU did not let up in the final set, a set in which at one point they held an 11-4 cushion. The two teams traded the next seven points then with championship point at 14-8 it was appropriate that CIAA Tournament MVP Eva Johnson smashed the match’s final kill on an assist from Ashley Tarasoff. Chelsea Amick, the 2008 Rookie of the Year, had a team high 14 kills for the Lady Vikings and Stacie West added another 11 kills of the bench. In the fifth and deciding set ECSU had 10 kills versus only one error to 5 kills and 4 errors for Fayetteville State (22-14). 2008 CIAA Player of the Year Chekimbrel Jefferson finished the championship with an astonishing 27 kills while Samantha Meeks added 19 kills for the Lady Broncos (22-14). Jefferson, Meeks and setter Achari Mainor were all tabbed for the All-Tournament for FSU. A complete list of the 2008 All-Tournament team is as follows. 2008 CIAA Volleyball All-Tournament Team Nicolette Campbell, Saint Augustine’s College Itumeleng Shadreck, Bowie State Ashley Tarasoff, Elizabeth City State Achari Mainor, Fayetteville State Chelsea Amick, Elizabeth City State Samantha Meeks, Fayetteville State Jasmine McNair, Bowie State Chekimbrel Jefferson, Fayetteville State Eva Johnson, Elizabeth City State (2008 Tournament MVP)