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Match #22
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 | 7 p.m.
American "Eagles" (13-9, 8-0 Patriot League) at Morgan State "Lady Bears" (12-9, 4-1 MEAC)
Baltimore, Md. | Hill Field House

BALTIMORE, Md. (Oct. 16, 2018)-The Morgan State Lady Bears will close out their 2018 non-conference schedule on Wednesday, Oct. 17, when they welcome the American Eagles to Hill Field House. First serve is at 7 p.m.
 
Morgan State (12-9, 4-1 MEAC), which is in the midst of a season-long four-match winning streak, will also put this season's unbeaten mark at home on the line when the Eagles come to town.
 
The Lady Bears are coming off a 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-13) victory this past Sunday over Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Northern Division preseason favorite, Maryland Eastern Shore. The win not only gave the Lady Bears sole possession of second in the league standings, but improved Morgan State to 5-0 at home this season. The Lady Bears' home court winning streak now stands at nine straight, dating back to last season.
 
Cristen Coryatt and Kalysia Bates each recorded a match-high 11 kills, while Monette Daniels and Zoe McBride added seven kills apiece for Morgan State. McBride led the Lady Bears with 10 digs and Coryatt added nine. Roi Wallace finished with a match-high 30 assists. Bates collected a match-high six blocks and Kheanna Landrum added three blocks.
 
Morgan State has been paced by Coryatt, who is averaging 3.71 kills per set, while McBride is adding 3.14 kills per set and leads Morgan State with 30 service aces. Jasmin Hubbard is averaging 3.81 dig per set and Wallace is totaling 10.24 assists per set. Bates leads the team with 68 total blocks.
 
American (13-9, 8-0 Patriot League) enters the contest riding a season-high eight-match winning streak. The Eagles swept Army (25-21, 25-18, 26-24) at home in their last outing on Oct. 12 to wrap up the first half of their league slate.
 
Aleksandra Kazala tallied 14 kills and seven digs, while tying teammate Loren McKenzie with three blocks. Kristen Largay had 19 digs and Kennedy Etheridge finished with 33 assists, while hitting .750 with three kills.
 
Kazala leads American with 3.52 kills per set and is adding 2.63 digs, 17 service aces and 40 blocks. Largay leads the team in both digs per set (4.41) and service aces with 21. Etheridge is averaging 10.06 assists per contest. Loren McKenzie has accounted for 92 of the team's 200 blocks.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST AMERICAN: American leads the all-time series, 28-0. Last season the Eagles defeated Morgan State, 3-0 in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 5, 2017.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will be off until Friday, Oct. 26, when they return to MEAC action to host northern division leader Howard. First serve is at 7 p.m. at Hill Field House. The match will be the fourth of six straight home contests for Morgan State.
 
BOZIER REACHES 450 VICTORIES: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier entered the 2018 season needing nine more wins to reach career victory No. 450. On Sunday, Sept. 30, she picked up career milestone victory No. 450, following a 3-1 win at Norfolk State. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 453 career victories as the volleyball coach, is also the softball program's all-time career leader with 161 victories in the nine seasons she served as head coach.
 
BATES NAMED MEAC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Kaylisa Bates was named MEAC Co-Player of the Week on Oct. 15. A native of Phenix City, Ala., Bates hit .500 in two matches over the weekend to lead Morgan State to a 2-0 week. Bates totaled 28 kills and six blocks and added an ace and a dig. The 6-foot-1 middle hitter finished with 17 kills and hit .640 as Morgan State defeated Delaware State (10/12) in straight sets. She added 11 kills and six blocks (three solo) to help Morgan State end a four-match losing skid to Maryland Eastern Shore (10/14).
 
MORGAN SURPASSES 2017 WIN TOTAL: The Lady Bears had a total of eight wins all of last season. This season, Morgan State has a total of 12 victories, including eight non-conference wins. With its 3-1 victory at Norfolk State (9/30), Morgan State picked up its ninth victory of 2018, to surpass last season's total. The 12 wins are the most since 2015 (13 wins).
 
TRACKING WALLACE: Roi Wallace tallied 30 assists in the win against Maryland Eastern Shore (10/14), giving her 2,361 career assists thus far, which ranks third on the Morgan State charts. She set a career-high 60 assists earlier this season in a win over Saint Peter's (8/29).
 
HUBBARD CLOSING IN ON 1,000 DIGS: Junior libero Jasmin Hubbard has collected 873 career digs. Hubbard is now 127 digs away from reaching the 1,000-digs plateau.
 
AMONG THE MEAC'S BEST: As a team Morgan State ranks first in hitting percentage (.225), assists per set (11.51) and is second in kills (12.42) behind northern division leader Howard (12.58)…Kalysia Bates leads the MEAC in hitting percentage (.312). Monette Daniels (.259) is third and Cristen Coryatt (.221) is 10th…Roi Wallace has a MEAC leading 10.24 assists per set and is eighth in service aces with 0.37…Cristen Coryatt ranks third in kills with 3.71 per set, while Zoe McBride (3.14) and Kalysia Bates (2.58), rank seventh and 10th, respectively…Jasmin Hubbard ranks fifth in digs with 3.81 per set.
 
DANIELS NAMED MEAC CO-DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK: Monette Daniels was named MEAC Co-Defensive Specialist of the Week on Monday, Oct. 1, as announced by the conference office. A native of Detroit, Mich., Daniels totaled nine blocks, three digs and 12 kills, while hitting .300 to lead Morgan State to a 1-1 weekend. Daniels would finish out the weekend strong, as she tied her career high for blocks in a single match with eight, while adding two service aces, three digs and eight kills for a .316 hitting percentage in the win at Norfolk State (9/30).
 
CORYATT, BATES NAMED TO CHARM CITY CLASSIC TEAM: Senior Cristen Coryatt and sophomore Kalysia Bates were named to the Charm City Classic All-Tournament team (9/23). A native of Sugar Land, Texas, Coryatt would hit for .279, while totaling 23 kills, 14 digs and four aces in five sets played. The 5-9 outside hitter finished with a match-high 21 kills, a .321 hitting percentage, nine digs and two aces in a four-set win over North Carolina A&T (9/21). Bates finished with nine total blocks, including three solo, 16 kills, seven digs and three aces. A native of Phenix, Ala., Bates recorded five blocks, one solo and added four digs, eight kills and an ace in a four-set victory over North Carolina A&T. She added five blocks, including two solo to go with three digs, two aces, eight kills and hit for .353 in the finale over the Lady Bulldogs.
 
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 8-18 overall, 7-5 in the MEAC good for a third-place finish.
 
BOZIER ENTERS 31ST SEASON: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier is in the midst of her 31st season at the helm of the Lady Bear program. The all-time winningest coach at Morgan State (453), 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 nine 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.
 
UNBEATEN STREAKS STILL INTACT: Morgan State entered the season unbeaten against four of its opponents and remained that way, following victories over Niagara (13-0), Prairie View A&M (2-0), Jackson State (2-0) and South Carolina State (22-0). The Lady Bears first faced Niagara on Aug. 31 in the Golden Flashes Classic and swept the Purple Eagles. Morgan State then met both Prairie View A&M and Jackson State in the New Orleans Tournament on Sept. 7 and swept the Panthers, before needing five sets to defeat the Jackson State Tigers. Last week Morgan State played host to South Carolina State on Sept. 22 in the finale of the Charm City Classic and swept the Lady Bulldogs.
 
CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED: Seniors Monette Daniels and Cristen Coryatt were named as the 2018 captains, while juniors Roi Wallace and Jasmin Hubbard were named as co-captains.
 
FOUR NAMED TO MEAC ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM: Morgan State had four players named to the 2017 MEAC Volleyball All-Academic Team, based on their academic success during the 2016-17 school year. Two of the four recognized (Jasmin Hubbard and Roi Wallace) return for the 2018 season. Kheanna Landrum and Wallace were also named to the MEAC Commissioner's All-Academic Team for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better during the 2017-18 academic year.
 
WELCOME TO THE CAVE: The Lady Bears welcome the addition of seven newcomers to the 2018 squad, six of which are freshman and one sophomore transfer. Those newcomers are freshmen Sara Brown (Bowie, Md.), Nia Smith (Odenton, Md.), Zoe McBride (Ridgefield, Wash.), Morgan Eugene (Brandywine, Md.), Jasmin Perry (Bowie, Md.) and Brook Adams (Phoenix, Ariz.) along with sophomore transfer Kalysia Bates (Phenix, Ala.).
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State will say goodbye to four seniors, Monette Daniels, Kheanna Landrum, Deja Lester and Cristen Coryatt prior to its regular season finale 'Senior Day' match against crosstown rival Coppin State on Nov. 4 at Hill Field House.
 
2018 MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2018 MEAC volleyball championship will take place November 16-18 in Washington, D.C. at Burr Gymnasium on the campus of the Howard University.