BALTIMORE, Md. (Oct. 15, 2016)-The Morgan State volleyball team will close out its 2016 non-conference slate this Sunday, Oct. 18, when the Lady Bears welcome Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Southern Division foe, Bethune-Cookman to Hill Field House for a rare regular season match. First serve is set for 1 p.m.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams since last season, when the Wildcats swept Morgan State in a MEAC semifinal match (11/21/15) in Princess Anne, Md.
Morgan State leads the all-time series, 14-5, but the Wildcats have won three of the last four meetings with all three wins coming during the MEAC volleyball championship tournament, including the last season's win.
The match will also mark the first time Morgan State and Bethune-Cookman will meet during the regular season since Oct. 22, 2012, a 3-0 win by the Lady Bears in a bizarre match that was billed as 'The Match Never Scheduled.'
Although the assistant coaches were in talks that summer about possibly playing a non-conference match that season, nothing was officially finalized. There would be no more mention of a contest until Morgan State officials received a call from B-CU trying to schedule practice time. Despite not having the Wildcats on its schedule nor a contract by either institution to play, Morgan State officials eventually agreed to play the match, since B-CU was already scheduled to come to Baltimore to play Coppin State the day before.
After being forced to play a contest that was never scheduled, and having their bye weekend taken from them, the Lady Bears would dominate Bethune-Cookman and send the Wildcats back home with two losses during their visit to 'Charm City'. After the match, while the teams met at the net for the traditional post-match handshake, then B-CU head coach, Isaac Raphael failed to get in line and would not shake hands.
The Lady Bears (4-16, 4-2 MEAC North) who enter Sunday's contest winless (0-14) in non-conference matches this season, will look to pick up its first non-conference win since a 3-1 victory last season over Loyola-Maryland (9/19/15).
In Morgan State's last outing on Friday night, the Lady Bears swept crosstown rival Coppin State to improve to 4-2 at the midway point of the conference schedule and remain in third-place in the northern division standings. The Lady Bears also improved to 3-2 at home with the win.
The Lady Bears were led by Natashia Barker, who tallied a match-high 17 kills and added 12 digs to lead Morgan State past Coppin and improve to 60-10 all-time against the Eagles. Barker, who notched her first double-double of the season, also recorded a match-high .452 hitting percentage with just three errors on 31 attempts. Haley McClure fell shy of a double-double, finishing with 10 digs and nine kills, while Keana Browne also added nine kills. Jasmine Hubbard tied a season-best with 19 digs and Roi Wallace totaled a match-high 39 assists. Browne and Wallace each tallied a match-high three blocks.
Bethune-Cookman (4-17, 3-2 MEAC South) is coming off a 3-1 non-conference loss to MEAC defending champion and northern division leader, Howard on Friday night in Washington, D.C. It was a rematch of last year's MEAC title match.
The Wildcats were led by Alana Handy finished with a match-high 18 kills, and added 12 digs to earn a double-double. Alondra Baustista had 15 digs and nine kills, while J'nai Higgins recorded 38 assists for the Wildcats. Phylecia Armstrong led the team with a match-high six blocks, including two solos.
