PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (Jan. 23, 2021)-The last time the Morgan State volleyball team took the floor for  a match was one day shy of 14 months ago, when the Lady Bears dropped a five-set thriller to Beltway rival Howard in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title match on Nov. 24, 2019.
 
After having its 2020 season postponed due to the MEAC canceling all Fall sports until the Spring of 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Morgan State finally returned to action on Saturday evening when it visited Temple in a non-conference match at McGonigle Hall.
 
Morgan State would end up dropping a hard-fought contest to the host Owls in five sets, 3-2 (14-25, 25-17, 27-25, 20-25, 12-15). It was just the second meeting between the two programs with Temple holding a 2-0 all-time series lead.
 
Senior Tylar Roberson recorded a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs, while fellow senior Jennevy Santos finished with a match-high 25 digs to lead the Lady Bears. Freshman Gabriela Hiciano fell short of a double-double in her Morgan State debut, finishing with 11 digs and nine kills and junior transfer Jada Bivins totaled 36 assists, seven digs, seven kills, two service aces and a block in her first contest as a Lady Bear.
 
Morgan State (0-1) finished with 49 kills and a hitting percentage of .155 for the match. The host Owls totaled 62 kills and had a team hitting percentage of .210.
 
Temple (1-0) scored the first four points in the opening set and led 7-3, before Morgan State went on a 5-2 spurt to pull within 9-8. The host Owls gained control of the set, using a 9-3 run to take an 18-11 advantage and closed out the scoring with a 6-1 run to earn the 25-14 win.
 
Trailing 10-7 in Set 2, the Lady Bears scored the next four points to take an 11-10 lead and never trailed again. The Owls would tie the score three times, the last coming at 15-15, before the guests went on an 8-1 run to take control of the set at 23-16. Freshman Tyasia McDuffie closed out the set with an ace to give Morgan State the 25-17 victory and even the match at 1-1.
 
Both teams had runs in the third set but were unable to pull away. Morgan State, which had a set-best 16 kills, while hitting a high of .250, broke a 19-19 tie with three straight points in the midst of a 5-1 run. Temple responded with four consecutive points to even the score at 24 all. The Lady Bears went up 25-24 on a block by Shadae Debraux and Roberson, but the Owls evened the score on a kill by Taylor Davenport. Morgan State finished the set with back-to-back kills by Roberson for the 27-25 victory and 2-1 set lead.
 
The host Owls tied a set-high with 15 kills and totaled a set-best .344 hitting percentage in Set 4 to even the match at 2-2. Morgan State pulled within 18-17 on an attack error by the Owls, but that would be as close as the Lady Bears would get. Temple scored the next two points and went on a 7-3 run down the stretch for the 25-20 victory.  
 
Set 5 was closely contested throughout. Temple took advantage of back-to-back attack errors by the Lady Bears to take a 14-11 lead, the largest lead for the Owls in the set. After Roberson got a kill for Morgan's final point, Tyler Lindgren recorded a kill to give Temple the set and match victory.
 
Temple was led by Miray Bolukbasi, who finished with a match-high 18 kills and added 10 digs to earn a double-double. Lindgren also totaled a double-double, collecting a match-high 45 assists and 15 digs. Peyton Boyd and Ilayda Dincer finished with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Nikki Saito led the Owls with 17 digs and Xeryah Salanoa recorded 12.
 
The Owls held a 10-8 advantage in blocks. Nina-Symone Williams, Davenport and Boyd each had a match-high four blocks for Temple. Debraux led the Lady Bears with four blocks.
 
Morgan State is scheduled to host George Washington in a non-conference match at Hill Field House on Friday, January 29 at 5 p.m.