Match 2
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-1, 0-0 MEAC) vs. George Washington "Colonials" (0-0, 0-0 Atlantic 10)
Date: Friday, Jan. 29, 2021
Site: Baltimore, Md. (Hill Field House)
Time: 5 p.m.
Series Record: George Washington leads, 7-0
TV: N/A
Video: Here
Websites: www.MorganStateBears.com | www.gwsports.com
Gameday: Here
 
BALTIMORE, Md. (Jan. 28, 2021)-The Morgan State volleyball team will look to bounce back from a tough 3-2 (14-25, 25-17, 27-25, 20-25, 12-15) road loss to Temple (1/23) in the season-opener, when it welcomes George Washington to Hill Field House this Friday for its home-opener. First serve is at 5 p.m.
 
BEAR CLAWS: Morgan State (0-1) enters the contest coming off a 3-2 loss at Temple (1/23) to begin the 2021 Spring season. Senior Tylar Roberson finished with a team-high 15 digs and had 10 kills to earn a double-double. Senior Jennevy Santos tallied a match-high 25 digs, while freshman Gabriela Hiciano fell short of a double-double in her Morgan State debut, finishing with 11 digs and nine kills. 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. Roberson leads Morgan with 3.00 kills per set, while Santos is averaging 5.00 digs per contest and Bivins leads the team with 7.20 assists per set.

A LOOK AT GEORGE WASHINGTON: The Colonials (0-0) are coming off a 15-14 campaign and 8-6 in the Atlantic 10, which was good for a fourth-place tie in 2019. George Washington would fall to La Salle in three sets in the A-10 quarterfinal round. Head coach Sarah Bernson, who is in her fourth season at GW (37-50), has a career mark of 52-110. The Colonials' defense is intact with the return of junior Libero Bella Bowman and senior defensive specialist Sydney Welch. Bowman finished fifth in the A-10 in digs per set (4.13) in 2019. Welch appeared in all 100 sets and finished fourth on the team with 1.85 digs per set. Offensively, GW will rely on returners Paz Dozie-Nnamah (70 kills, 57 digs), Addie Feek (54 kills, 55 blocks), Sarah Pintel (34 kills), Heather Merryman (90 digs, 14 assists) and Callie Fauntleroy (60 kills, 65 blocks), who all saw extensive action last year. GW was picked to finish fourth in this season's A-10 preseason poll.
 
MSU VS GW SERIES NOTES: George Washington leads the all-time series, 7-0. The Lady Bears and Colonials last met in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 14, 2018 with GW earning a 3-2 victory.
 
ROBERSON NAMED MEAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior Tylar Roberson was named MEAC Player of the Week (1/25). It was the first-ever MEAC Weekly honor for Roberson. Roberson earned a double-double with a team-high 15 kills and 10 digs in the season-opening five-set loss at Temple (1/23). A native of Elkhart, Ind., Roberson added two blocks and a service ace. It was the 14^th career double-double for Roberson at Morgan State and her fourth straight dating back to last season.

HICIANO NAMED MEAC CO-ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Gabriela Hiciano was named MEAC Co-Rookie of the Week (1/25). Hiciano nearly recorded a double-double against Temple (1/23), finishing with 11 digs and nine kills in her collegiate debut. The Carolina, Puerto Rico native also tallied two service aces and assisted on a block.
 
MORGAN PICKED TIED FOR THIRD IN MEAC NORTH: Morgan State was picked to finish tied for third with Delaware State in the northern division of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason poll, as voted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. In 2019, the Lady Bears were picked to finish third and ended up going 18-13 overall, 10-5 in the MEAC for fourth and reaching the MEAC title match.
 
OPENING SERVE: Morgan State fell to 9-19 in season openers since the 1993 season, following last Friday's 3-2 loss to Temple (1/23). Last season the Lady Bears defeated Seton Hall (8/30/19) to open the season. Prior to the Seton Hall victory, Morgan State had lost seven consecutive season-openers, and had last won on opening day in 2011 when they defeated Saint Peter's 3-0 at the La Salle Invitational (8/26/11).
 
SPORTING A NEW LOGO: Morgan State will have a new uniform and apparel outfitter for the 2020-21 season, as the Lady Bears will now wear Baltimore based Under Armour. The partnership with Under Armour will allow Morgan State to provide Under Armour uniforms, apparel, gear and equipment for its complete roster of student-athletes, coaches, athletic department personnel and the campus community. The agreement with Under Armour will last for five years and the affiliation will debut with the first the first game of the season on Nov. 25 at Hill Field House.
 
BOZIER ENTERS 33RD SEASON: Morgan head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters her 33rd season at the helm of the Lady Bear program. The all-time winningest coach at MSU (472), Riley-Bozier guided the Lady Bears to 88 consecutive MEAC Northern Division wins between 1994-2003. She has led MSU to five MEAC Championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances and earned MEAC Coach of the Year honors five times. Bozier also coached the softball team at MSU for nine seasons and in 1999 led the team to its only MEAC title game appearance. A native of Kansas City, Mo., Bozier, is a graduate of MSU, where she was a two-sport start in volleyball and track. She is one of 11 players in the history of the program to have registered 1,000 career kills. On the track, Bozier was a three-time All-American and one of the top triple jumpers at Morgan. She still holds the UMBC meet record in the 60-meter dash (1983) and ran the first leg of the 4X100 relay, which in 1986 set the school record in a time of 44.47 seconds, which also still stands. That squad would also win the Penn Relays and finished second that year at the Division I National Championships. Bozier was inducted into the Morgan State Hall of Fame in 2003.
 
SANNY RETURNS HOME: Morgan State assistant coach Sanky Sanny returned home on Saturday, Jan. 23, when the Lady Bears visited Temple for their season-opener. He spent his collegiate career as a member of Temple's men's club team, helping the Owls earn their first Atlantic Collegiate Volleyball Conference title in 2015. Sanny would earn a Bachelor of Science degree in athletic training from Temple in 2017. Sanny joined the Morgan State coaching staff in 2019 after spending the previous two seasons as a volunteer assistant coach at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, Pa., where he helped the team compile a combined 52-16 overall record and 33-5 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Last season he helped the Tigers to a 31-6 record and 18-1 in league play, as they captured the program's first-ever CACC title and advanced to the NCAA Division II East Region championship match.
 
BOZIER THREE SHY OF 475: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters the 2021 Spring season three wins shy of career victory No. 475. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 472 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.
 
BATTLE RECEIVES McDONALD'S SCHOLARSHIP: Morgan State sophomore was one of 34 students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to receive McDonald's Black & Positively Golden Scholarship to continue their education. The fund helped students who attend HBCUs continue their education despite impacts of COVID-19. Battle's winning essay landed her a $6,800 scholarship. In addition to the scholarships, McDonald's also surprised each winner with a special delivery, which included a tablet, school supplies and a congratulatory video, featuring notable HBCU alumni.
 
WELCOME TO THE CAVE: Morgan State welcomes the addition of eight newcomers to the 2021 Spring squad, five freshman and three junior transfers. Those newcomers are freshmen: Londyn Coles (Canal Winchester, Ohio), Gabriela Hiciano (Carolina, Puerto Rico), Tyasia McDuffie (Columbia, Md.), Jourdan Page (Bowie, Md.) and Alyssa Sampson (Dayton, Ohio), along with junior transfers Jada Bivins (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Kendal Hoges (West Orange, N.J.) and Anaya Martin (Tyrone, Ga.).
 
MORGAN EARNS USMC/AVCA ACADEMIC AWARD: The Lady Bears volleyball program was honored as a recipient of the United State Marine Corps (USMC) and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2019-20 season. Morgan State, which received the award for the first time in program history, posted a team GPA of 3.48 for the academic year.
 
TOURNAMENT EXPOSURE: Morgan will face just one opponent this season (Howard) that reached the NCAA Volleyball Tournament in 2019. The Lady Bears will face the four-time defending MEAC champion Howard Lady Bison four times this season. The two will square off in Baltimore on Feb. 11-12 for the MEAC opening series, before closing out the season on March 18-19 in Washington, D.C.
 
2021 SPRING MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2021 Spring MEAC Volleyball Championship will take place April 2-3 in Norfolk, Va. at Echols Hall on the campus of Norfolk State University.
 
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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 126 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.