BALTIMORE, Md. (Oct. 26, 2018)-The Morgan State Lady Bears begin the second half of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) slate this Friday, Oct. 26, when they host Beltway rival Howard at 7 p.m. at Hill Field House.
 
The Lady Bears, who sit in second in the MEAC Northern Division standings, will look to avenge their lone league loss, which came on the road to division leader Howard.    
 
Morgan State (12-10, 4-1 MEAC), which is 5-1 at home this season, suffered its lone loss at Hill Field House, following a 3-0 loss to American (10/17). The defeat ended the Lady Bears' season-long four-match winning streak, as well as their nine-match home court winning streak, dating back to last season.  
 
Zoe McBride recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs, both team highs. Kalysia Bates and Cristen Coryatt added eight and seven kills, respectively. Roi Wallace finished with 28 assists and had a match-high four service aces. Monette Daniels collected three aces, as the Lady Bears finished with 10 service aces.
 
The Lady Bears have been paced by Coryatt with 3.65 kills per contest and 2.68 digs per set. McBride is adding 3.17 kills and 2.44 digs to go with 31 service aces, which ranks second. Roi Wallace leads the team with 10.21 assists per set and is adding 2.41 digs per set and a team-leading 32 service aces. Jasmin Hubbard leads the Lady Bears with 3.73 digs per set, while Bates has a team-leading 68 blocks.
 
Howard (13-9, 5-0 MEAC) is searching for its fourth straight MEAC title. The Lady Bison, who are riding a season-long six-match winning streak and has won eight of its last nine contests, are coming off a 3-2 victory over visiting Bethune-Cookman (10/21).
 
Jurnee Tipton recorded a match-high 24 kills and Kia Porter added 18 kills. Tamia Dockery tallied a double-double with a match-high 53 assists and 16 digs. Fola Wilson led Howard with 19 digs and Abby Morrow totaled 14 digs.
 
Tiptop leads the Lady Bison with 3.17 kills per set and Wilson leads the team in digs with 4.50 per set. Dockery is averaging 10.04 assists per set and is tied with Porter for the team lead with 15 service aces. Porter also leads Howard with 59 blocks.  
 
ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST HOWARD: This will be the 72nd meeting between the two programs with Morgan State holding a 37-34 all-time series advantage. Howard however, has gone 9-3 in the last 12 meetings, dating back to the 2013 campaign. The Lady Bison won this season's first match-up, 3-1 in Washington, D.C. (9/28).
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will play the fifth match of six consecutive home contests on Sunday, Oct. 28, when they welcome the Norfolk State Spartans to Hill Field House. The match will get underway at 3 p.m.
 
MCBRIDE EARNS 4TH MEAC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK HONOR: Freshman Zoe McBride was named MEAC Rookie of the Week on Oct. 22. It was her fourth MEAC weekly honor of the season. A native of Ridgefield, Wash., McBride recorded a double-double in the Lady Bears' lone match of the week in the non-conference finale against American. She hit .286 in the match and finished with 12 kills and 12 digs. McBride would also add a service ace and a block against the Eagles. The contest marked the sixth double-double this season for McBride.
 
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.
 
TRACKING WALLACE: Roi Wallace tallied 28 assists against American (10/17), giving her 2,389 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 878 career digs. Hubbard is now 122 digs away from reaching the 1,000-digs plateau.
 
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).
 
AMONG THE MEAC'S BEST: As a team Morgan State ranks first in hitting percentage (.222), assists per set (11.49) and is second in service aces per set (1.67) and kills (12.38) behind northern division leader Howard (12.71)…Kalysia Bates ranks second in the MEAC in hitting percentage (.303) and Monette Daniels (.262). is third and Cristen Coryatt (.221) is 10th…Roi Wallace has a MEAC leading 10.21 assists per set and is first in service aces with 0.41, while Zoe McBride ranks fourth in service aces at 0.39…Coryatt ranks fourth in kills with 3.65 per set, while McBride (3.17) and Kalysia Bates (2.58), rank seventh and 10th, respectively…Bates also ranks sixth in blocks with 0.86 per set…Jasmin Hubbard ranks fifth in digs with 3.73 per set.
 
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.
 
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.