BALTIMORE, Md. (Sept. 21, 2016)-The Lady Bears volleyball team will kick off what will be an action packed and exciting weekend on campus for Morgan State athletics.
First up, on Friday, Sept. 23 the Lady Bears will welcome the Lady Pirates of Hampton for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) opener for both programs. First serve is at 7 p.m. at Hill Field House. It will be the first of two contests over the weekend for Morgan State against the MEAC's Virginia Tidewater area schools.
Sandwiched in between the volleyball action will be the Morgan State football team's MEAC opener at home on Saturday night against rival Howard. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Hughes Memorial Stadium. Known as the 'Battle of the Beltways', this year's 'Duel In the DMV', will be the first home night game for the Bears since 2010 and will also mark the first meeting between the teams at Morgan State in seven years.
The Lady Bears will close out this weekend's events on Sunday, Sept. 25, when they return to Hill Field House to host Norfolk State in a MEAC match at 3 p.m.
"I'm very excited for both volleyball and football to start our MEAC schedule at home this weekend," said senior volleyball player and team captain Haley McClure. "I know the energy from our teams will be high all week, and the support from the rest of the school really gives us that extra confidence boost to go out and perform."
McClure added, "it's crucial for our team to get our first win of the conference and season against Hampton on our home court. We are hungry for a win, and want to start off strong in our conference. The fact that we are playing at home makes it that much more important for us to protect our court and represent Morgan."
Morgan State (0-14) enters Friday's competition winless on the season, after dropping three matches over the weekend to Middle Tennessee, Liberty and Virginia Commonwealth at the VCU Invitational.
In the last match of the tournament against the host VCU Rams, McClure led the Lady Bears with seven kills and five digs. Minne Masoe led the squad with six digs and Roi Wallace finished with 20 assists for the Lady Bears.
McClure was named to the all-tournament team after totaling 32 kills, 27 digs and three assists in three matches, while in Richmond. A senior out of Ashburn, Va., McClure began the tournament on fire, setting career highs in both kills (17) and digs (15) against Middle Tennessee. It was the second consecutive honor for McClure, who the week before took home All-Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament honors at UMBC (Sept. 11.)
Morgan State has been paced by Natashia Barker, who is averaging 2.64 kills per set and is tied with Roi Wallace for the team lead in service aces with six. Jasmine Hubbard has collected 2.90 digs per outing, while Wallace has averaged 6.64 assists per set. Monette Daniels leads the Lady Bears with 21 blocks, while Victoria Turnbough and Keana Browne have notched 20 blocks apiece.
Hampton (1-10) is coming off a 1-2 mark over the weekend at the George Mason Invitational. The Lady Pirates began the tournament by ending an eight-match losing skid to start the season, when they defeated Loyola-Maryland in a five-set thriller on Sept. 16.
Reeana Richardson recorded a match-high 25 kills and Summer Humes collected a match-high 13 digs for Hampton in the win. Brianna Lilly finished with a match-high 42 assists.
The Lady Pirates are led by Richardson, who is averaging 3.23 kills per set, while leading the team in service aces with nine. Lena Washington leads Hampton in digs with 1.94 per set and is tied with Kyndall Nicholas in blocks with a team-high 21. Lilly is totaling 7.37 assists per contest.
Norfolk State (1-10) heads into its match on Friday at Coppin State riding a six-match losing skid. The Spartans last competed on Sept. 10, as part of the Phoenix Classic, hosted by Elon and was swept in all three contests. In the finale against Gardner-Webb, Jessica Johnson finished with a match-high 10 kills and Melvina Brown had a team-high 18 digs. Jill Aquino totaled a match-high 19 assists for the Spartans.
Johnson has led the Spartans with 3.45 kills per set and Aquino is averaging 6.12 assists per outing. Alex Irizarry, Dominique Parker and Sydney Dailey have led the Spartans with eight service aces each. Brown leads the team in digs with 4.29 per contest and Parker has been the team's leading blocker with a total of 17.
Morgan State enters the upcoming matches with a 39-7 all-time series lead over Hampton and holds a 17-5 series lead over Norfolk State. Last season the Lady Bears won both matches against both Hampton and Norfolk State.
"For us to come out 2-0 this weekend, we have to work to control everything on our side of the net to the best of our abilities," said McClure. "This week, we need to focus and push past our limits every day in practice. We have a lot to prove to ourselves as well as our conference and we are ready to perform this weekend."
