PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (Oct. 10, 2014)-The Morgan State volleyball team returned to action on Friday evening and defeated the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) 3-1 (25-19, 25-13, 23-25, 25-23) in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) North Division match at the William P. Hytche Athletic Center.

The win tied a season-long three-match winning streak for the Lady Bears, who have now won three straight over UMES since dropping 10 consecutive matches to the Lady Hawks. The two teams will meet again on Friday, Oct. 31, when Morgan State plays host to the Lady Hawks for its own 'Dig Pink' match at Hill Field House.

Samantha Prescott, who spent the previous two matches filling in for an injured Carmen Fernandez at the setter position, returned to her roll as a utility player and finished with a team-high 11 kills and a match-high eight digs for the Lady Bears.

Zuri Smith added 10 kills and a match-high four blocks, Arianna Hayden and Dinah Jones each recorded eight kills and Evely Macedo finished with six kills in the win. Hayden also totaled seven digs and tied Smith with a match-high four blocks, while Jones finished with three blocks. Fernandez finished with a match-high 35 assists, six digs and tallied three kills on four attempts to tie a season-best .750 hitting percentage. It was Fernandez's first appearance since leaving the Norfolk State match (10/3) prior to the start of the second set with an injury.

The Lady Bears (11-7, 4-1 MEAC) jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the opening set, before host UMES responded with a 5-1 run to pull within 10-7. Morgan State scored the next three points to take a 13-7 advantage, but the Lady Hawks would not go away, scoring four straight to cut the deficit to 13-11. Morgan State took a 17-13 lead, when UMES head coach Toby Rens was given a yellow card. The Lady Bears would extend its lead to 20-14 and went on to win the set, 25-19. Morgan State had 14 kills on 25 attempts with just one error for a hitting percentage of .520 in the set.

In Set 2, the Lady Bears hit for a .400 hitting percentage with 12 kills on 20 attempts. Morgan State scored the first four points and took a 7-1 lead to force a UMES timeout. Morgan State held a 12-7 lead, before scoring the next five points to increase its advantage to 17-7. The Lady Bears later used a 5-2 spurt to take a 23-11 lead and back-to-back kills from Smith ended the frame, giving the guests a 25-13 victory and a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission. 

UMES (8-11, 1-3 MEAC) broke an 11-11 score in Set 3 by using a 6-1 run to take a 17-12 lead. The Lady Hawks held a 22-15 lead, before the Lady Bears went on a 5-0 spurt to pull within 22-20. Morgan State trailed 24-23 after a kill by Prescott, but the hosts came up big when Kirstin Fink and Alana Polk combined on a block of Prescott to end the set and give the Lady Hawks a 25-23 victory.

The Lady Hawks appeared to be on their way to forcing a fifth set, when they jumped out to a 12-5 lead. Morgan State went on a 5-0 run to close the gap to 12-10. Trailing by a point (18-17) the Lady Bears used another 5-0 run to extend their lead to 22-18. The hosts countered with a 4-1 run to pull within 23-22, but a service error by Ksenia Sukhareva gave Morgan State a 24-22 lead. However an attack error on Morgan State kept the set alive for UMES. On the ensuing possession Smith recorded a kill for the final point to give the guests a 25-23 victory and a 3-1 match win.

Sukhareva led the Lady Hawks with a match-high 12 kills and had four digs. Fink finished with a team-high 17 assists, nine kills and had a team-high five digs in the loss. Precious Manu added 13 assists and Ashley Smith tallied eight kills and four digs.

Morgan State finished the evening with 12 service aces. Haley McClure led the way with a match-high four aces, while Hayden had three. Fernandez and Prescott each added two. 

UMES had five service aces, but committed 12 service errors. Allison Woods had two aces.

The Lady Bears will be off until next Thursday, Oct. 16, when they travel to the Nation's Capital to take on Howard in a MEAC North match at Burr Gymnasium. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. in Washington, D.C. It will be the Lady Bison's Dig Pink match for breast cancer awareness.