Ivanti Bush recorded her 1,000th kill on Friday night at Howard.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 30, 2009)-The Morgan State volleyball team fought back from an 0-2 set deficit to force a fifth and decisive set, but in the end fell on the short end of a hard fought 3-2 (21-25, 20-25, 25-15, 25-21, 13-15) loss at Howard on Friday evening in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) North Division match at Burr Gymnasium.
Morgan State's loss, coupled by Hampton's victory over Coppin State, drops the Lady Bears into fifth-place in the MEAC North standings, while Howard remains in third-place and Hampton moves into fourth. Only the top four teams will advance to the upcoming conference championship (Nov. 20-22) hosted by Coppin State.
Gazelle d'Artois led the Lady Bison (8-23, 4-3 MEAC) with a match-high 23 kills and added 14 digs to lead Howard to its fourth straight win over Morgan State and the season sweep. Gabrielle Martin also tallied a double-double with 11 kills and 14 digs, while Taylor Johnson finished with 10 kills. Nicole Brown led Howard with 24 digs, while Jasmine King notched a match-high 45 assists and added nine digs.
Morgan State (7-20, 2-5 MEAC) Ivanti Bush, who led the Lady Bears with a team-high 15 kills and added 14 digs to record her third double-double of the season, also became the 10th player in Morgan State history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau. Erin Cox also recorded a double-double for Morgan State, finishing with 10 kills and 12 digs. Cox also tallied six of the Lady Bears' 13 service aces.
After dropping the first two sets the Lady Bears came out strong in the third set. Morgan State broke an 11 all tie by using a 10-3 run to take a commanding 21-14 lead, before winning 25-15.
The fourth set was neck-and-neck throughout, until the Lady Bison took their largest lead of the set at 15-10 on a Morgan attack error. Morgan State would bounce back to even the score at 16 apiece, but a 4-1 run by Howard gave the hosts a 20-17 advantage, following a kill by d'Artois. The Lady Bears would not go away, as Cox would tally three consecutive service aces in the midst of a 5-0 run to give the guests a 22-20 lead.
Riding high off of their comeback, the Lady Bears jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fifth set after a kill by Dominique Bozier. But Howard would respond with five straight points in part of a 9-3 spurt to take a 10-7 lead. Morgan State evened the score at 11 all on a kill by Cox, but would get no closer as Howard went on to win 15-13.
Christa Rogers tallied 38 assists, four kills, six digs and four blocks for the Lady Bears, while Dina Beamon finished with a match-high 31 digs and added two service aces.
Taylor finished with a match-high seven blocks to help the Lady Bison to a 13-10 blocking advantage over Morgan State.
Morgan State returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 1 when they visit Coppin State in a MEAC North Division match at 5 p.m. at the Coppin Center.
