EAST LANSING, Mich. (Sept. 4, 2016)-The Morgan State volleyball team was two points away from winning two consecutive sets and forcing a fifth and decisive set against Central Michigan. Unfortunately, the Lady Bears would not close out the deal. CMU would score the final six points to turn a four-point deficit into a two-point win (25-23) in the fourth set.

With the win, the Chippewas would claim a 3-1 (25-12, 25-16, 21-25, 25-23) victory over Morgan State in the finale for both teams in the Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational.

CMU (2-4) would finish the weekend with a 1-2 mark, while Morgan State, which remained winless on the season, dropped three matches.

Kathia Sanchez recorded a triple-double with 25 assists, 10 kills and 10 digs to lead the Chippewas. Jordan Bueter and Taylor Robertson each finished with a team-leading 11 kills and Paige Carey added 10 kills. Courtney Hiltibran tallied 16 digs and Bueter added 12 to earn a double-double.

The Chippewas jumped out to a 2-0 lead after recording a combined 31 kills in the two sets, including 16 kills and just one attack error in the first set for a .577 hitting percentage.

After being held to just four kills in Set 2, Morgan bounced back for a set-best .360 hitting percentage with 13 kills to take the third set.  

The fourth set would feature 12 ties and seven lead changes, as Morgan State would record 18 kills. The Lady Bears appeared to be in position to force a fifth set, when they took a 23-19 lead after back-to-back kills by Keana Browne and Natashia Barker.

CMU's devastating run began with an attack error by Morgan State. Carey then recorded a kill to cut the lead down to 23-21 and force a Morgan State timeout. The Chippewas would come out of the timeout getting a kill from Carey and two straight kills from Jessica Meichtry to give CMU a 24-23 lead force another Morgan timeout. At this point the momentum was clearly on the Chippewas side and they would end the set and match with Carey and Robertson combining on a block for the 25-23 come-from-behind win. 

Barker finished with a match and career-high 17 kills to lead the Lady Bears. Haley McClure fell short of a double-double, finishing with 11 kills and nine digs. Jasmin Hubbard totaled a match-high 19 digs and Victoria Turnbough added 12 digs to go along with five kills and a team-high .714 hitting percentage. Minne Masoe had a match-high 29 assists and Roi Wallace added 10.

Morgan State will visit UMBC on Friday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. for an opening night match of the Maddie Bingaman Tournament. The Lady Bears will conclude the tournament on Saturday, with a match against Robert Morris at 12:30 p.m., followed by Winthrop at 5:30 p.m.