WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 20, 2019)-The Morgan State volleyball team suffered a 3-1 (25-21, 17-25, 10-25, 16-25) loss to Florida International (FIU) on Friday afternoon in the 2019 Hoya Invitational at McDonough Arena.
 
 FIU (7-3) was led by Sidney Henderson, who had a match-high 17 kills and 10 digs and Lina Bernier finished with a match-best 25 digs. Abbie Hughes also finished with a double-double, recording a match-high 42 assists and 13 digs to go with nine kills and a .692 hitting percentage. Chelsea Hudson, like Hughes, also had no errors in the match. She would hit for a match-high .727 with eight kills on 11 attempts, as the Panthers hit .363 as a team for the match.
 
Zoe McBride led the Lady Bears with a match-high 17 kills and 10 digs. Tylar Roberson also had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs. Jennevy Santos added a team-high 10 digs and Roi Wallace finished with 29 assists.
 
FIU scored the first five points in the opening set. Morgan State (5-7), which had a set-best 15 kills, pulled within 15-14 after a service error on the Panthers, but FIU scored the next four points to extend its lead to 19-14. The Lady Bears used a 7-1 spurt, including four straight points to take their first lead of the set at 21-20 and force a FIU timeout. Morgan State increased its advantage to 23-20 on back-to-back service aces by McBride. A service error on the Lady Bears ended a 9-1 run by Morgan State, but the Lady Bears scored the next two points to close out the set with an 11-2 run for the 25-21 comeback victory.
 
Morgan State scored five straight points to take a 9-4 lead and held an 11-5 advantage in Set 2, before FIU went on a 9-1 run to reclaim the lead 14-12. A kill from Roberson ended the Panthers' run, but FIU responded with an 11-4 spurt to close out the set and claim a 25-17 win. The Lady Bears hit for a set-high .290 with 11 kills, while the Panthers had a set-best 16 kills and a set-high .467.
 
In Set 3, FIU used runs of 4-0, 3-0 and 7-0 to increase its lead to 22-9. The Panthers cruise to a 25-10 victory and took a 2-1 lead in the contest. Morgan State was limited to just seven kills and had a .000 hitting percentage, both set lows. FIU finished the set with 15 kills and only one attack error in 34 attempts for a .412 team hitting percentage.
 
FIU used a 6-0 run to take a 9-2 lead in the fourth set. After Morgan State got a kill from McBride, the Panthers went on a 7-1 spurt to extend their lead to 16-4. Mykaela Ross followed up her kill with a service ace to bring the Lady Bears within eight points (18-10), but that would be as close as they would get. The Panthers took a 21-10 advantage after scoring the next three points to take control of the set and match.
 
Morgan State will look to end its six-match losing skid, when it closes out the 2019 Hoya Invitational on Saturday against Binghamton at 11 a.m.