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BALTIMORE, Md. (Oct. 15, 2019)-The Morgan State volleyball team will step out of Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Northern Division play this weekend when it travels to the Sunshine State of Florida to face MEAC Southern Division foes Bethune-Cookman (B-CU) on Friday, Oct. 18 in Daytona Beach, Fla., before traveling to Tallahassee, Fla. to face Florida A&M (FAMU) on Sunday, Oct. 20.
 
It will mark the first time since 2002 that Morgan State will visit the two Florida schools on their home floors. The FAMU contest will be the first regular season meeting between the two teams since 2006.
 
Morgan State (8-11, 2-4 MEAC, 1-3 MEAC North) enters the weekend in the midst of a three-match losing skid. The Lady Bears suffered their third consecutive 3-0 loss, this time to Norfolk State on the road on Monday. The loss was the first of the season for the Spartans and knocked Morgan State to fifth in the northern division standings.
 
Zoe McBride led Morgan State with a match-high 11 kills. Tylar Roberson finished with six kills and Mykaela Ross added three. Jennevy Santos collected a team-high 17 digs, while Sophie Pajevic and Roberson each tallied 10 digs. Roi Wallace recorded a match-best 19 assists and seven digs.
 
Bethune-Cookman (6-14, 3-3 MEAC, 2-2 MEAC South) enters Friday's contest against Morgan State coming off a 3-1 victory over visiting North Carolina Central (10/13). The win ended a three-match losing skid. Bailey Robinson totaled a career-high 17 kills and Jordan Jefferson added her 40 career double-double with 14 kills and 20 digs. Shayla Eugene finished with a match-high 26 digs, while Ryleigh Taylor collected a career-high 41 assists. Alleah Dallas totaled a match-high four blocks, while Tynesha Adams and Taylor each added three. Adams had two solo blocks. Earlier in the week Jefferson was named MEAC Co-Player of the Week, while Robinson was named MEAC Rookie of the Week and Taylor earned MEAC Setter of the Week.
 
Florida A&M (5-14, 1-4 MEAC, MEAC South) will host Coppin State on Friday, before welcoming Morgan State to the Al Lawson Center on Sunday. The Rattlers are in the midst of a two-match losing skid after dropping a five-set loss at North Florida on Tuesday. Maria Yvett Garcia totaled a match-high 19 kills and added 11 digs for a double-double. Nahla Muhammad recorded 17 digs and Alexis Gosha collected 13 digs. Ilayda Nurkan finished with 23 assists, while Elena Dimitrova tallied 20 assists to go with nine kills and nine digs. Alexys Mann had a match-high four blocks and Dimitrova recorded three blocks.
 
SERIES RECORD VS. B-CU: Morgan State leads the all-time series against Bethune-Cookman, 14-8. The Wildcats have won the last four meetings, including a 3-2 victory last season in the New Orleans Tournament (9/8/18). The Lady Bears' last victory over B-CU came during the 2012 season, a 3-0 win in Baltimore (10/22/12).
 
SERIES RECORD VS. FAMU: FAMU has won 15 straight to lead the series, 23-7 and has eliminated the Lady Bears from the MEAC Tournament the each of the last two seasons. Morgan State's last victory over the Rattlers was in the 2000 MEAC Tournament championship match (11/18/00). The Lady Bears' last regular season win over FAMU came in 1995.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will return home on Friday, Oct. 25 to close out MEAC cross divisional play against the South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs. First serve will be at 6 p.m. Morgan State has never lost to S.C. State and leads the all-time series, 22-0.
 
LOSING SKID REACHES THREE STRAIGHT: The Lady Bears enter this weekend's Florida trip riding a three-match losing skid, following Monday's loss at Norfolk State (10/14). The loss not only was the third consecutive shutout defeat in as many contests for Morgan State, but it also provided the first win of the season for the Norfolk State Spartans.
 
IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME: Morgan State will make its first trip to both Daytona Beach and Tallahassee, Fla. to face MEAC foes Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M for the first time since the 2002 season. In their last trip to Florida for MEAC action, the Lady Bears dropped a 3-0 decision at FAMU, before defeating B-CU, 3-0. The two teams would travel to Baltimore for the 2003 season, before meeting in 2004 in the first year of the MEAC Round-Up, which matched the MEAC's Northern teams against the MEAC's Southern teams. 
 
AMONG THE LEAGUE'S BEST: Roi Wallace leads the MEAC in assists with 9.32 per set, while Zoe McBride leads the conference in kills at 4.56 per set and Tylar Roberson ranks fourth in kills (3.24 per set). Wallace is fifth in service aces (0.42 per set) and Jennevy Santos is third in digs (4.15). As a team the Lady Bears lead the MEAC in digs (14.78), while ranking third in kills (11.81), fourth in assists (10.78) and fifth in hitting percentage (.173).
 
THIS TIME IT COUNTS: When Morgan State took on North Carolina Central (10/4) it marked the first time since 2006 that a contest against a MEAC Southern Division opponent counted toward the MEAC's regular season standings. 2006 was the last time the MEAC held its annual MEAC Round-Up which saw the two divisions square off against each other. The league did away with the round-up in 2007 and until this season, any cross divisional play counted as a non-conference match. The Lady Bears will take on the entire MEAC Southern Division, including North Carolina A&T (10/6), at Bethune-Cookman (10/18), at Florida A&M (10/20) and South Carolina State (10/25).  
 
WALLACE BECOMES THIRD TO REACH 3,000 ASSISTS: Roi Wallace became the third Lady Bear in school history to reach 3,000 career assists, when the Lady Bears defeated Binghamton (3-2) in the finale of the Hoya Invitational (9/21). Wallace, who finished the match with 55 assists, reached the 3,000-plateau when her 46th assist of the match resulted in a kill by Tylar Roberson to bring the Lady Bears within a point at (21-20) in the fourth set. Wallace entered the season third on the Morgan State charts with a total of 2,536 career assists. She posted 19 assists at Norfolk State (10/14) and has currently totaled 671 assists this season to give her 3,207 for her career.
 
HUBBARD MOVES INTO FOURTH ALL-TIME IN DIGS: Senior Jasmin Hubbard picked up two digs in the win over North Carolina Central (10/4) to give her 1,002 career digs and move her past former Lady Bear Dina Beamon (1,000 digs from 2008-10) for fourth-place all-time on the Morgan State charts. Hubbard recorded four digs in the previous match against Delaware State (9/29) to give her exactly 1,000 digs for her career. The Reno, Nevada native entered the 2019 campaign with 974 career digs and was ranked sixth.
 
MCBRIDE EARNS THIRD MEAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Zoe McBride was named MEAC Player of the Week on Monday. It was her third MEAC weekly this season. McBride averaged 5.2 kills and 2.0 digs per set, while hitting .291 in two matches. The Ridgefield, Wash. native totaled 52 kills, 20 digs, six service aces and four blocks for the week. McBride had a match-high 27 kills to go with a .299 hitting percentage, nine digs and a career-high four service aces, as Morgan State overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat Maryland Eastern Shore in the MEAC opener.
 
BOZIER RECORDS WIN NO. 460: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier, who entered the 2019 season six wins shy of career victory No. 460, secured the sixth victory of the season when the Lady Bears defeated Binghamton (9/21) in the finale of the Hoya Invitational. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 462 career victories as the volleyball coach, is also the softball program's all-time career leader with 161 victories in nine seasons at the helm. Riley-Bozier began 2019 ranked 33rd in career wins among active coaches on the NCAA's Division I coaching list.
 
TAKE FIVE: Prior to the North Carolina Central match (10/4), the Lady Bears played in three consecutive five-set matches and a total of six this season. Morgan State, which is 4-2 in five-set contests this season, had won two straight five-set contests before its loss to Delaware State (9/29).
 
BEST START EVER: The Morgan State volleyball team's 5-1 mark was its best start in school history through the first six matches, after going 2-1 in the Knights Fall Classic (Sept. 6-7). Twice the program has began a season with a 4-2 record (1982, 94). 
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State will say goodbye to its seniors, Jasmin Hubbard and Roi Wallace prior to its regular season finale 'Senior Day' match against Norfolk State on Nov. 3 at Hill Field House.
 
2019 MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2019 MEAC volleyball championship will take place November 22-24 in Washington, D.C. at Howard University's Burr Gymnasium.