PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (November 20, 2015)-The Morgan State women's volleyball team opened up the 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) volleyball tournament with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 26-24) quarterfinals victory over the Lady Aggies of North Carolina A&T on Friday night at the Hytche Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

It was the first time the two programs have met since the semifinals of the 2006 MEAC Tournament, also a 3-0 sweep for the Lady Bears in Hampton, Va., as they would advance to the title match.

With tonight's win, Morgan State advances to Saturday's semifinal match against top-seed Bethune-Cookman out of the MEAC Southern Division. First serve will be at 3:30 p.m. North Carolina A&T, who was the third seed out of the southern division, concluded the season with a 7-14 mark.

The Lady Bears (13-14) were led by Evely Macedo, who finished with a match-high 12 kills, while Arianna Hayden and Dinah Jones added 10 and nine kills, respectively. Carmen Fernandez totaled a match-high 33 assists and Hayden led the team with a match-high eight digs.

Brooke Stamnes led North Carolina A&T with 10 kills and Kayla Finnerty had a team-leading 11 assists. Stamnes and Ashley Johnson each had a team-high five digs.

Morgan State scored the first two points of the opening set, then took the first of four five-point advantages at 14-9, before cruising to a 25-19 victory. The Lady Bears later used a 4-0 spurt to take their largest lead of the set at eight points (23-15). NC A&T would counter with four straight points, before an attack error on the Lady Aggies gave Morgan the win.

A 5-0 run by the Lady Bears a 10-3 lead, following a service ace from Haley McClure. Morgan's lead would grow to 12 points (16-4) on an attack error by A&T and a kill later on by Jones, gave the Lady Bears their largest lead of the set at 23-10. The Lady Bears would go on to win the set by a score of 25-11.

NC A&T appeared to regrouped from the intermission period and held a 10-7 advantage in the third set, but Morgan State used a 12-6 spurt to take a 19-16 lead. The Lady Bears took a 22-19 lead, but the Lady Aggies would not go away, using a 3-0 run of their own to even the score at 22. NC A&T took a 24-23 lead and was serving for the set victory, but a back-to-back kills by Hayden and McClure gave put the Lady Bears ahead, 25-24 to force a timeout by A&T. Coming back from the timeout the Lady Bears would win the set and match off of an A&T hitting error, 26-24.

Morgan State finished the match with 42 kills on 80 attempts for a hitting percentage of .325. Keana Browne recorded six kills on eight attempts for a match-high hitting percentage of .625. Browne would also lead the Lady Bears with five blocks, as Morgan State held an 8.0-5.0 blocking advantage over the Lady Aggies.

NC A&T received a team-high five blocks from Marteen Hill. The Lady Aggies finished with a hitting percentage of .063 with 25 kills on 79 attempts and 20 errors.