MSU Notes | Tournament Central

BALTIMORE, Md. (Aug. 30, 2018)-Fresh off its first win of the season on Wednesday, a 3-2 victory over Saint Peter's, the Lady Bears volleyball team returns to the road this weekend when they compete in the Golden Flashes Classic (Aug. 31-Sept. 1) hosted by Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
 
Morgan State begins the tournament with two contests on Friday against Purdue Fort Wayne (12 p.m.) and Niagara (5 p.m.), before closing out the tournament on Saturday against host Kent State (12 p.m.). All three matches will be played at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center (M.A.C. Center).
 
MSU AGAINST THE FIELD: The Lady Bears and Purdue Fort Wayne will meet for the first time. Morgan State holds a 12-0 all-time series lead over Niagara, while Kent State holds a 3-0 all-time lead against Morgan State.
 
LAST WHISTLE: Morgan State needed all five sets on Wednesday, to overcome a 2-1 deficit and defeat Saint Peter's, 3-2 (22-25, 25-14, 17-25, 25-21, 16-14) in the home opener for the Lady Bears. Morgan State was led by Roi Wallace, who recorded a double-double with career– and match highs in both assists (60) and digs (18). Cristen Coryatt finished with a match-high 19 kills, while Kalysia Bates and Zoe McBride each added 16 and 13 kills, respectively. The Lady Bears finished the match with a hitting percentage of .229 with 66 kills, including a set-high .565 with 16 kills in Set 2.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will travel to New Orleans, La. next week to take part in the University of New Orleans Tournament (Sept. 7-8). Morgan State will face Prairie View A&M and Jackson State on Friday, before closing out with Bethune-Cookman and host New Orleans on Saturday.
 
WALLACE SETS CAREER-HIGHS: Junior Roi Wallace recorded career highs in both assists (60) and digs (18) in the win over Saint Peter's (8/29). Wallace's 60 assists, surpasses the 50 assists she had a year ago against Evansville (9/1), while the 18 digs are two more than her previous high of 16 set last season against Howard (10/4).
 
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 enters her 31st season at the helm of the Lady Bear program. The all-time winningest coach at Morgan State (441), 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.
 
HEADING BACK TO THE MIDWEST: Morgan State has four players, all from Michigan, who will be returning to the Midwest to play in front of family and friends when the Lady Bears take part in the Golden Flashes Classic in Kent, Ohio. Those players are Monette Daniels (Southfield, Mich.), Deja Lester (Flint, Mich.), Mykaela Ross (Farmington Hill, Mich.) and Trinity Smith (Detroit, Mich.).
 
SOMEONE NEW: Morgan State will square off against one first-time opponent this season, in Purdue Fort Wayne. The Lady Bears and the Mastodons will square off on Aug. 31 in Kent, Ohio in the opener of the Golden Flashes Classic. First serve is at noon on the campus of Kent State University.
 
UNBEATEN STREAKS ON THE LINE: Morgan State will look to extend its winning ways, as it enters the season unbeaten against four of its opponents: Niagara (12-0), Prairie View A&M (1-0), Jackson State (1-0) and South Carolina State (21-0). The Lady Bears will face Niagara on Aug. 31 in the Golden Flashes Classic and will meet both Prairie View A&M and Jackson State in the New Orleans Tournament on Sept. 7. Morgan State will play host to South Carolina State on Sept. 22 in the finale of the Charm City Classic at Hill Field House.
 
MORGAN-COPPIN TO HOST CHARM CITY CLASSIC: This season the Lady Bears and crosstown rival Coppin State will co-host the 2018 Charm City Classic (Sept. 21-22). This will mark the first time the Lady Bears have hosted a tournament since 2012, when they hosted the Battle at the Bay Tournament. Morgan State will serve as host of the East bracket at Hill Field House, while Coppin State will host the West bracket at the Physical Education Complex. The Classic will match-up members of the MEAC Northern Division (Morgan, Coppin, Delaware State, Norfolk State) against the MEAC Southern Division (North Carolina A&T State, North Carolina Central, South Carolina State). Morgan State will square off against N.C. A&T State on Friday at 7 p.m. and will take on S.C. State on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
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.
 
BOZIER EIGHT SHY OF 450: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier entered the 2018 season nine wins shy of career victory No. 450. On Wednesday, Aug. 29, she picked up her 442nd victory, following a 3-2 home opening win over Saint Peter's. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 442 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.
 
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.
 
TOURNAMENT EXPOSURE: Morgan will face two opponents this season (American and Howard) that reached the NCAA Volleyball Tournament in 2017. The Lady Bears will host American on Oct. 17 in Baltimore and will face the three-time defending MEAC champion Howard Lady Bison on Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C. and again on Oct. 26 in Baltimore.
 
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, Shadae Debraux, 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