Morgan State Notes | Tournament Central

BALTIMORE, Md. (Sept. 14, 2017)-The Lady Bears volleyball team will conclude their 2017 non-conference slate this weekend when it travels to Wilmington, N.C. to compete in the Courtyard By Marriott Tournament hosted by UNC Wilmington. It will be the fourth and final regular season tournament this season for the Lady Bears. Morgan State will open up on Friday, Sept. 15 against Western Michigan at 4 p.m. On Saturday, the Lady Bears will then face the host Seahawks of UNCW at 12:30 p.m., before ending the day against Liberty later in the day at 4:30 p.m.
 
Morgan State has been paced by junior transfer Cristen Coryatt, who has totaled 128 kills (3.66 kps) and senior Keana Browne, who has 97 kills (2.69 kps) on the season. Jasmin Hubbard leads the team in digs with 141 (3.92 dps) and sophomore Roi Wallace has totaled 334 assists (9.28 aps) thus far. Junior Monette Daniels and Browne lead the Lady Bears with 20 blocks apiece.
 
MSU AGAINST THE FIELD: The Lady Bears and Western Michigan will meet for the first time this weekend. UNCW holds a 1-0 lead over the Lady Bears, while Liberty is 2-1 all-time against Morgan State. 
 
LAST WHISTLE: Morgan State, which has lost four straight matches, dropped three contests last weekend during the Fairfield Inn & Suites Charm City Challenge. The Lady Bears were swept by UMBC in the opener and fell in four sets to host Loyola-Maryland and Presbyterian.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will open up conference play the following weekend on the road, when it visits the Tidewater area of Virginia. Morgan State will first take on the Lady Pirates of Hampton on Friday, Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. at Holland Hall in Hampton, Va., before traveling to Norfolk, Va. to take on the Spartans of Norfolk State on Sunday, Oct. 1 at 3p.m. at Echols Hall. 
 
HUBBARD NAMED MEAC DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Libero Jasmin Hubbard was named MEAC Defensive Specialist of the Week on Monday by the league office. Hubbard averaged 4.9 digs per set over the weekend in the Charm City Challenge and totaled 54 digs in the 11 sets played. A native of Sparks, Nevada, Hubbard began the weekend with a match-high 17 digs in the opener against UMBC and then totaled a match-high 22 digs that night against host Loyola-Maryland. She concluded the tournament with 15 digs and two assists against Presbyterian.
 
BROWNE NAMED TO CHARM CITY CHALLENGE TEAM: Senior Keana Browne totaled 35 kills, 10 digs, two service aces, two assists and 10 blocks, including four solo in three matches to earn Fairfield Inn & Suites Charm City Challenge All-Tournament team honors. A native of Virginia Beach, Va., Browne had a match-high 13 kills and hit for a match-best .370, while also adding five digs, two assists and a block in the opener against UMBC. She concluded the evening hitting for a .400 with 12 kills, three digs, a service ace and five blocks (three solo) against Loyola-Maryland. In the finale against Presbyterian, Browne finished with 10 kills, two digs, an ace and four blocks.
 
WALLACE REACHES 1,000 CAREER ASSISTS: Roi Wallace reached the 1,000 assists plateau in the third match of the Charm City Challenge against Presbyterian (9/9). Wallace would record 43 assists against the Blue Hose, giving her 1,022 assists for her career. Wallace is the 10th Lady Bear to reach 1,000 kills and currently ranks 10th all-time at Morgan State.
 
BLOCK PARTY: Monette Daniels and Keana Browne lead the Lady Bears with a total of 20 blocks. Daniels has four solo blocks, while Browne leads the team with nine.
 
WALLACE NAMED MEAC SETTER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Roi Wallace was named MEAC Setter of the Week (9/4) by the league office, after racking up 127 assists in three matches. A native of San Dimas, Calif., Wallace notched 10.58 assists per set to help the Lady Bears to a 1-2 week. She totaled a career-high 50 assists against Evansville and a day later added 48 assists, while adding three ace, four digs and a career-high four kills in a win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
  
CORYATT EXPLODES FOR SEASON-HIGHS: Junior transfer Cristen Coryatt closed out the Redhawks Invitational on a high note in her final two matches. The Sugar Land, Texas native recorded her first double-double of the season with a team-best 17 kills, while adding 13 digs and a season-high two blocks against Evansville (9/1). Coryatt then exploded for a match- and season-high 25 kills and season-high hitting percentage of .477 in the finale against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (9/2).
 
WALLACE SETS CAREER ASSISTS MARK: Roi Wallace set a new career high in assists with 50 against Evansville (9/1) during the Redhawks Invitational. The 50 assists surpassed her previous career-high of 49 a year ago at Norfolk State (10/23/16).
 
PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999: When the Lady Bears defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the finale of the Redhawks Invitational (9/2), it was not only the first meeting between the two Division I Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) programs, but it will also mark a rare meeting for Morgan against a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) foe. The last time MSU, a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference faced a SWAC opponent was Sept. 17, 1999, a 3-0 victory over Prairie View A&M. The Lady Bears improved to a perfect 7-0 all-time against SWAC opponents with all seven wins coming under the direction of Coach Bozier.
  
BOZIER ENTERS 30TH SEASON: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters her 30th season at the helm of the Lady Bear program. The all-time winningest coach at Morgan State (434), Riley-Bozier guided the Lady Bears to 88 consecutive MEAC Northern Division wins between 1994-2003. She has led MSU to five MEAC Championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances and earned MEAC Coach of the Year honors five times. Bozier also coached the softball team at MSU for seven seasons and in 1999 led the team to its only MEAC title game appearance. A native of Kansas City, Mo., Bozier, is a graduate of Morgan State, where she was a two-sport start in volleyball and track. She is one of 11 players in the history of the program to have registered 1,000 career kills. On the track, Bozier was a three-time All-American and one of the top triple jumpers at Morgan. She still holds the UMBC meet record in the 60 meter dash (1983) and ran the first leg of the 4X100 relay, which in 1986 set the school record in a time of 44.47 seconds, which also still stands. That squad would also win the Penn Relays and finished second that year at the Division I National Championships. Bozier was inducted into the Morgan State Hall of Fame in 2003.
  
MORGAN PICKED THIRD IN MEAC NORTH: Morgan State was picked to finish third in the northern division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason poll, as voted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Last year, the Lady Bears were picked to finish third and went 7-21 overall, 7-5 in the MEAC good for a third-place finish.
 
SOMEONE NEW: Morgan State will square off against eight first-time opponents this season. When the Lady Bears head to Greensboro, N.C. for the Spartan-Demon Deacon Classic (Aug. 25-26), they will face Wake Forest for the first time ever in the season opener and then the University of Massachusetts Lowell in the finale. A week later Morgan State will travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo. for the Redhawks Invitational (Sept. 1-2), where they will face host Southeast Missouri State, Evansville and the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, all for the first time. The Lady Bears and Presbyterian will meet for the first time in the finale of the Charm City Challenge (Sept. 9) on the campus of Loyola-Maryland. Morgan State will then take on Western Michigan for the first time, when they meet in Wilmington, N.C. in the Courtyard by Marriott Tournament (Sept. 15-16).
 
1992 TEAM TO BE HONORED: 25 years ago Morgan State captured its first MEAC Volleyball championship with a 3-1 victory over Florida A&M in the 1992 title match. That team will be celebrated and honored during homecoming weekend and prior to the Lady Bears' match against Delaware State (10/15) at Hill Field House.
  
WELCOME TO THE CAVE: Morgan State will welcome the addition of six newcomers to the 2017 squad, three of which are freshman and three junior transfers. Those newcomers are freshmen Shadae Debraux (Fort Washington, Md.), Trinity Smith (Detroit, Mich.) and Mykaela Ross (Farmington Hill, Mich.) along with junior transfers Cristen Coryatt (Sugar Land, Texas), Kheanna Landrum (Goodyear, Ariz.) and Deja Lester (Flint, Mich.).
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State will say goodbye to its two seniors, Keana Browne and Michaela Collins prior to its regular season finale 'Senior Day' match against crosstown rival Coppin State on Nov. 12 at Hill Field House.
 
2017 MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2017 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference volleyball championship is scheduled for November 17-19 at the William P. Hytche Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Md.