Christa Rogers recorded her first career double-double with 22 assists and 10 digs at Howard.
Lady Bears Suffer First Regular Season Series Sweep by Howard in 14 Years
Boxscore
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 24, 2008)-During the early 90s, Morgan State and Howard were the top teams in both the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) North Division and the league as a whole. During the mid-90s Howard's dominance would come to an end and Morgan State's would begin, as prior to this season's first meeting at Hill Field House (10/5) – a 3-1 win by Howard – Morgan State had won 25 straight matches over the Lady Bison and had not lost a match to Howard since the 1996 season.
The last time the Morgan State volleyball program had been swept by Howard in the season series, dates back to the 1994 season, when the Lady Bears lost all five meetings against Howard – three during the regular season and two matches during the MEAC Championships, including the title match.
14 years later, behind Gazelle D'Artois's team-high nine kills and 10 digs and Keri Partridge adding eight kills, the Lady Bison swept the regular season series, defeating Morgan State, 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-15) on Friday evening in a MEAC match at Burr Gymnasium.
The victory was the second straight for the Lady Bison and the eighth in their last nine matches, improving them to 12-14 overall and 6-1 in MEAC action, while Morgan State fell to 2-22, 1-6 in MEAC play.
Ivanti Bush led the Lady Bears with a team-high nine kills and Rhyan Shy and Erin Cox added six kills apiece for Morgan State, which dropped its fourth straight match. Camille Coleman tallied a match-high three blocks, including a solo and Kierra Riley added two blocks to help Morgan State to a slim 3.5-3.0 advantage over Howard in blocks.
Morgan State, which never led in the first set, trailed 20-15, before using a 6-3 spurt to pull within 23-21, following a service ace by Shy. However, the Lady Bears would not get any closer and dropped the opening set 25-22 after a Morgan service error ended the game.
The second set was back-and-forth with the Lady Bears holding their largest lead of the set at 12-10 on a kill by Bush. That would quickly change as Howard would use a 5-0 run to take a 15-13 advantage. An 8-4 run by the Lady Bison gave them their largest lead at 23-17 and they closed out the set on a thunderous kill by Gabrielle Martin for the victory.
Set three was all Howard, as it broke a 5-5 tie with an 11-3 run to take a 16-8 lead, which all but sealed the set and the match.
Howard finished the match with 55 digs and was led by Nicole Brown, who tallied a match-high 25 digs and Grace Demichelis totaled a match-high 31 assists for the Lady Bison. Dina Beamon had a match-high 15 digs and Christa Rogers chipped in with a season-high 10 digs to help Morgan State record its second-most digs this season with 52. Rogers also notched 22 assists to earn her first collegiate double-double.
The Lady Bears will look to close out their homecoming festivities on a good note, as they host Coppin State for their homecoming match on Sunday, Oct. 26 at Hill Field House. First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m.
