PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Aug. 26, 2016)-The Morgan State volleyball team opened up the 2016 campaign taking part in the La Salle Invitational and dropped both of its opening day contests on Saturday. The Lady Bears would drop the opener to the host Explorers, 3-0 (12-25, 14-25, 12-25), before falling to New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) by a score of 1-3 (10-25, 25-15, 19-25, 21-25). Both matches were played at Tom Gola Arena on the La Salle campus.
 
In the opening match against host La Salle, the Explorers' Devin Corah recorded a match-high 11 kills, while Bryanna Davis added nine kills in the win. Corah also finished with three service aces and three blocks, both match highs. Kathryn Wood finished with a double-double, recording a match-high 30 assists to go with a match-high 13 digs and totaled three kills on three attempts to help the hosts improve to 7-2 all-time against Morgan State.
 
The Lady Bears (0-2) were led by Natashia Barker, who recorded six kills and two service aces, both team highs, and added four digs. Amos Milan added four kills, while Minja Rankov led the squad with 12 digs. Roi Wallace and Minne Masoe split the duties at setter, with Wallace finishing with eight assists and Masoe tallied seven.
 
Morgan State would finish the contest with a hitting percentage of .026 (19 kills on 78 attempts and attack 17 errors).
 
La Salle (1-0) recorded 43 kills on 83 attempts with just nine errors to finish with a .410 hitting percentage. As a team the Explorers also held a 4.0-3.0 blocking advantage over Morgan State.
 
With a match under its belt, the Lady Bears returned to the court in the evening and played much better, before falling to NJIT. The loss gave the Highlanders a 2-1 all-time lead over Morgan State in the series.
 
Morgan State would be led by Barker, who finished with a team-best 11 kills to go with seven digs in her second match as a Lady Bear. Monette Daniels would add nine kills. Rankov collected a match-high 19 digs to tie her career-high. Wallace produced 38 assists to tie match-high honors.
 
Morgan State finished the contest with 42 kills on 115 attempts and had 21 errors for a .183 hitting percentage.
 
The Highlanders (2-0) finished with 45 kills on 115 attempts and had 18 attack errors for a htting percentage of .235 for the match.
 
Katarzyna Klocek had a match-high 15 kills and eight digs, while Weronika Wiezik added 12 kills. Adriana Nieto recorded a team-best 11 digs and had three service aces, while Liz Benson collected a double-double with 38 assists and 10 digs to go with three service aces.
 
Trailing 2-1 after three sets, the Lady Bears appeared on their way to forcing a fifth set, when they took a 19-14 lead in Set 4. However, Morgan State would just score two more points the rest of the way, while witnessing NJIT go on an 11-2 spurt to close out the match.
 
NJIT would score six unanswered points to take a 20-19 lead on a kill by Benson. Morgan State evened the score at 20 all on an attack error by the Highlanders. Wallace then recorded a service ace to give Morgan a 21-20 lead. Unfortunately, the Lady Bears would not be able to close out the deal, as NJIT scored the next five points for the win.  
 
The Lady Bears return to action on Saturday, Aug. 27, when they take on Saint Francis-Pa. at 10 a.m. Morgan State will close out the La Salle Invitational with a match against Quinnipiac at 5 p.m.