WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 23, 2019—There will be no championship rematch.

Morgan State upset Southern Division top seed North Carolina A&T State in a five-set (24-26, 26-24, 25-16, 23-25, 15-11) thriller in the semifinal round of the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Volleyball Championship Saturday evening in Burr Gymnasium.

The Lady Bears (18-12) will take on Howard in the championship match on Sunday at 8 p.m. The match will be televised live on ESPNU. 

Morgan State is making its first title match appearance since 2006 and looking for its first title since 2000.

"I'm gonna go with 'wow' again," Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier said. "This is just so amazing, and it's always nice when your team can rally around each other and stay together as one."

On top of being the tournament semifinal, this match was a chance to see the two MEAC Co-Players of the Year in action against each other. Morgan State's Zoe McBride racked up 26 kills and hit .339, while also notching 15 digs for the double-double.

North Carolina A&T State's Edie Brewer fell one dig shy of her ninth triple-double of the season, finishing with 18 kills, 24 assists, nine digs, six blocks and four service aces.

"My teammates were more hype for [the match-up] than I was," McBride said. 

Tylar Roberson had another double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs, and Mykaela Ross added 12 kills. Roi Wallace also had a double-double with 50 assists and 16 digs, and Jasmin Hubbard – thrust back into the starting libero role overnight – led the way defensively with 22 digs.

The first two sets were almost mirror images of each other, with the Aggies taking the first frame with a 3-1 spurt at the end to win 26-24. The second set was more of the same; North Carolina A&T State was up 23-20, but the Lady Bears closed the frame on a 5-1 run, tying the match on kills from McBride and Roberson.

Morgan State carried that momentum into the third set, jumping out to a 10-2 lead and maintaining control throughout to take the set 25-16 and go up 2-1.

There were 15 ties in the fourth set alone, but back-to-back errors from Brewer gave the Lady Bears the 23-22 lead. Brewer recovered to slam a kill to tie the set, before the Aggies scored on the next rally to take a 24-23 lead. Brewer and Shaylynn Hall then paired on a block to force the decisive fifth set.

The fifth set was all Morgan State, with the Lady Bears jumping out to a 9-3 lead. The Aggies (16-14) rallied to cut the lead to 13-11 on a Makaylah Elliott kill, but Morgan State got back-to-back kills from McBride to close out the set and send the Lady Bears to the final.

Elliott had 10 kills for North Carolina A&T State. Andrea Laboy-Rivera led four Aggies with double-digit digs with 19.