DURHAM -- There were plenty of tears around the N.C. Central bench after the CIAA volleyball championship game Sunday morning at McLendon-McDougald Gym.

But this time, they were tears of joy.

It took a deciding fifth game to hold off determined Virginia Union as the Eagles won 30-28, 30-22, 22-30, 37-30, 15-9 to claim their first conference volleyball title since 1999 and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

The Eagles (24-13) lost a heartbreaking five-game decision on their home floor in last year's championship game against St. Augustine's, which had won four straight titles coming into this year's event.

"I can hardly say what I'm thinking right now, but it is a dream come true," said NCCU captain and tournament MVP Danielle Johnson-Webb, a senior who graduated from Chapel Hill High.

"We worked really hard this year. A lot of people said we were going to be weaker, but we really pulled it all together."

The championship was the second volleyball title for NCCU coach Ingrid Wicker-McCree, who led the Eagles to the 1999 title and also to the conference softball championship earlier that year.

Combined with the CIAA title that the men's cross-country team won on Oct. 22 in Cary, this marks the first time NCCU has won two conference titles in the same academic year since the softball and men's tennis teams were both champions in the spring of 1998.

"That was almost a repeat of last year's final," Wicker-McCree said. "They [the Panthers] wouldn't die, but we wouldn't either.

"Before the fifth game, we just told them to go out and play. There weren't going to be any secrets. Both teams knew what the other team was going to try to do. We just had to dig deep and take it."

NCCU junior outside hitter Brenda Brown was also named to the nine-player all-tournament team. VUU (23-7), which had only seven players in uniform and had three starters from the Czech Republic, placed Gabriela Mokra and Michaela Vanokova on the team.

Johnson-Webb had 27 kills in the title game, while Brown had 19 kills and 18 digs.

"I can't even say how happy I am - no words," Brown said. "I wasn't thinking any about last year at the end. I just wanted to go out and play hard."

Johnson-Webb was one of only three seniors on the team, trying to extend their season at least another day.

"I thought our depth was better than it was last year, and that helps us when we play a fifth game," senior outside hitter Cherie Wilson said. "At any point in the game, Coach could put in somebody off the bench and we'd be just as good.

"When we finally got the 15th point [in Game 5] I just said 'Praise God! It's about time!' "

Added Patricia Rodrigues, the senior outside hitter from Brazil, "I'm just really satisfied and proud of my team. We finally won this title and we get to keep it forever."

The other members of the all-tournament team were Edmonda Richards and Shinicka Spears of Fayetteville State, Kadina Baldwin of Winston-Salem State, Javonda Pettis of Virginia State and Whitney Chatman of Bowie State.