Natalie Chafeh finished with 20 assists, 10 digs and five kills against Temple on Saturday morning.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (Sept. 17, 2011)-The Morgan State volleyball team took a 14 mile trip Saturday morning from Moon Township – were they have been competing over the weekend in the Robert Morris Holiday Inn Classic – to Pittsburgh to take part in the Pitt Blue & Gold Invitational against Temple, who has been competing over the weekend in the tournament hosted by the University of Pittsburgh.
Despite playing tough, the Lady Bears would fall to the Owls, 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-14) in what would be Morgan's only match of the Blue & Gold Invitational at the Fitzgerald Field House. It was also the first meeting between the two teams.
Gabriella Matautia recorded a double-double with a match-high 11 kills and tied fellow teammate Elyse Burkert with a team-high 10 digs to lead Temple to victory. Tiffany Connatser tallied a match-high 29 assists, while Collin Wallace chipped in with nine kills and eight digs for the Owls, who improved to 4-8 on the season.
Morgan State (2-9) was led by Ngebui (Natalie) Chafeh, who notched a double-double of 20 kills and tied a match-high with 10 digs. Chafeh was also one of four Lady Bears to total a team-high five kills. Erin Cox (six digs), Ashley Johnson and Kierra Outllin (service ace, six digs) were the other three to record five kills for the Lady Bears, who have now dropped their ninth straight match.
The Lady Bears fell behind 16-10 in the opening set, before responding with a 4-0 run to force and Temple timeout and cut the deficit to 16-14. However, the Owls would put together a 4-1 run to extend their lead to 20-15. A kill by Johnson brought Morgan within 21-18, but that's as close as it would get as Temple would eventually take the set 25-19 on a service error by the Lady Bears.
Set 2 began the way the first one ended, with a Morgan State service error. The Owls would return the favor on the very next serve and Morgan State would take it first lead of the contest at 3-2 on a kill by Zurie Smith. The Lady Bears would hang around and trailed 10-9, before Temple used a 10-2 spurt to take control of the set and take a 20-11 lead, en route to a 25-16 win.
The Owls broke a 6-6 tie with a 10-1 run in the third set, giving them a 16-7 lead and closed out the set and match with a 6-2 run for the 25-14 victory.
Temple finished the contest with 33 kills and a hitting percentage of .236, while Morgan State had 26 kills. But it was miscues by the Lady Bears that led to a .098 hitting percent. Morgan State committed 17 attack errors and had six receive errors. Both teams totaled eight service errors each.
The Owls held Morgan State to under double digit kills in each of the three sets with the Lady Bears recording nine in the first and third sets and eight in the second.
The Lady Bears' Janelle Wilson, would finish with three kills and two digs and continued her strong play in the middle by adding three blocks, giving her nine in three matches played thus far this weekend. Chafeh, Smith and Simone Durham all added two blocks apiece to help Morgan State to a 5-3 advantage over Temple in blocks.
Morgan State will now return to Moon Township to conclude the Robert Morris Holiday Inn Classic with a 2 p.m. match against Texas Pan-American. Temple will conclude the Pitt Blue & Gold Tournament with a 5 p.m. match against New Mexico.
