WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 22, 2019—Mykaela Ross had 21 kills, and Zoe McBride added 20, as Morgan State outlasted Bethune-Cookman 3-1 (25-23, 28-30, 25-20, 25-19) Thursday night in the quarterfinal round of the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Volleyball Championship in Burr Gymnasium.

The Lady Bears (17-12) advance to Saturday's 8 p.m. semifinal against North Carolina A&T State.

Ross, who fell one kill shy of tying her career high of 22, which she set against Bethune-Cookman a year ago at the New Orleans Tournament, hit .459 to pace Morgan State on the evening, while McBride – the MEAC Co-Player of the Year (sharing that honor with North Carolina A&T State's Edie Brewer) – hit .304 and added nine digs. Tylar Roberson recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 15 digs.

Roi Wallace also had a double-double, racking up 57 assists and 10 digs. Wallace, who has recorded 3,637 career assists and is now eight assists shy of passing former Lady Bear Monica Scott (3,644 assists from 1995-98) for second-place on the Morgan State charts. Jennevy Santos paced the Lady Bears defensively with 16 digs.

"It's been a long road," Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier said. "I've been [at Morgan State] for a while and for Morgan to get past the first round, it's taken some years to get there and these girls have been great. I'm so thankful and appreciative for their hard work and commitment."

Bethune-Cookman (8-24) hit .299 for the match to Morgan State's .280 – and the Wildcats also had a 7.0-2.0 edge in team blocks. But Morgan State led 12-1 in service aces and had 17 more kills than Bethune-Cookman.

The second set was primed to be the catalyst – and in the latter stages, the team swapped points with such frequency that there were eight ties. McBride notched a kill that knotted the score at 28-28, but Faith Landreneaux and Kortney Curtis responded on the next two points to take the set 30-28 and tie the match at one apiece.

But Morgan State jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the third set, taking that lead on a Jasmin Hubbard service ace. Alleah Dallas later had a kill that cut the lead to 13-11, but Morgan State extended out to 20-15 after a Wallace ace, and they kept that distance for the rest of the set.

That momentum carried into the fourth set, as Morgan opened with a 9-4 spurt. There was no run for the Wildcats this time, and Morgan scored the last three points of the set to clinch the match and its first tournament win since 2015.

"It's a very good feeling to work so hard throughout the week and to have it show when it needs to show," Roberson said. "We've been telling each other, 'it's MEACs,' we don't have time to not settle down, to take plays off, to not take in the moment."

Jordan Jefferson had 17 kills and 10 digs to lead Bethune-Cookman. Alleah Dallas added 12 kills and hit for .526. Ryleigh Taylor finished with 22 assists and Kortney Curtis added 21. Shayla Eugene tallied a match-high 27 digs.