COLLEGE PARK, Md. (Aug. 29, 2015)-The Morgan State Lady Bears concluded the 2015 Maryland Invite with two shutout losses to Duquesne and Hofstra on Saturday at the XFINITY Pavilion. Morgan State began the day dropping a 3-0 (25-15, 26-24, 25-20) decision to the Dukes of Duquesne in the morning, before falling 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-13) to Hofstra in the evening. Morgan State would fall to 0-4 on the season with the losses.

Despite playing their best match of the tournament, the Lady Bears were unable to put together enough offense to earn a win against the Dukes. In the end it would be Duquesne who would earn their first win of the season.

Madelynn Burnham recorded a match-high 14 kills and Molly Davet tallied a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs to lead the Dukes past Morgan State. Davet also totaled a match-high four service aces. Mary Henry also had a double-double, finishing with 29 assists and 10 digs. Sammy Kline had a team-high 12 digs.

Haley McClure led Morgan State with eight kills and Keana Browne added seven. Samantha Prescott led the team with a match-high 15 digs, while Shayna Hunt-Colon added 11 digs to go with her five kills. Minne Masoe came off the bench and finished with 20 assists, two kills, three digs and a team-high two service aces.

Trailing 21-17 in the second set, the Lady Bears would go on a 7-2 spurt to take a 24-23 lead, following an error on the Dukes. However, Morgan State could not get the final point needed for the win. Instead it was Duquesne, which scored the next three points to win the set, 26-24.

In the third and final set, the Lady Bears scored five straight points to take a 6-2 advantage, but surrendered eight consecutive points to the Dukes and trailed 10-6. Morgan State pulled within 18-17, but would get no closer, as the Dukes claimed a 25-20 victory. 

Morgan State finished with 32 kills on 106 attempts for a .151 hitting percentage. The Dukes also had 106 attempts and totaled 40 kills for a .226 hitting percentage. Both teams committed 16 attack errors.

In the second match of the day, Hofstra's Veronika Kostova tallied a match-high 12 kills on 15 attempts and had no errors for an .800 hitting percentage. Leticia Valente added eight kills and Corrina Delgadillo finished with a match-high 13 digs. Hannah Klemm finished with a match-high 29 assists for the Pride, who improved to 3-1 on season. 

Morgan State was led by Arianna Hayden, who had eight kills and five digs, while Keana Browne finished with six kills. Samantha Prescott recorded a team-best eight digs and Carmen Fernandez totaled 14 assists. 

The Lady Bears' offensive woes continued in the match against the Pride, as they notched 22 kills on 80 attempts, but had 22 attack errors to give them a .000 hitting percentage. After recording 10 kills in the first set, Morgan State would be held to just six kills apiece and eight errors each in Sets 2 and 3.

Hofstra finished with a total of 37 kills on 75 attempts and 11 errors for a .347 hitting percentage. The Pride would record 13 kills in each of the first two sets and had a .524 hitting percentage in the opening set.

Both teams struggled from the serving line, committing six service errors each. Hofstra tallied seven service aces, while Morgan only had one ace. 

The Lady Bears did hold a 5.0-4.0 blocking advantage over the Pride. Monette Daniels led the way for Morgan State with a match-high three blocks, while Shayna Hunt-Colon added two blocks. Brianna Montgomery led Hofstra with three blocks, while Michela Rucli and Valente each recorded two blocks.  

The Lady Bears will travel to the 'Windy City' of Chicago next weekend to compete in the UIC Invitational (Sept. 4-5), hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Morgan State will first face the host Flames on Friday, Sept. 4, before closing out the tournament with matches against Chicago State and Central Connecticut State.