Match 24 (MEAC Contest)
Morgan State (4-19, 2-7 MEAC) at Howard (10-11, 7-2 MEAC)
Friday, October 29, 2021 | 6 p.m.
Washington, D.C. (Burr Gymnasium)
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BALTIMORE, Md. (Oct. 28, 2021)-Fresh off a 3-0 Homecoming victory over South Carolina State (10/24), Morgan State will now travel to Washington, D.C. to take on Beltway rival Howard in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) match at 6 p.m. at Burr Gymnasium. The contest will be the 81^st meeting between the two programs with the Lady Bears holding a slim 41-39 advantage.
  
Morgan State (4-19, 2-7 MEAC), which ended a six-match losing skid with the victory, will now look to put together its first two-match winning streak of the season when it visits Howard. Madison Grace totaled a match-high nine kills and Makila Billingsley added eight in the win over S.C. State. Jadore Hayes recorded a match-best 14 digs, while Gabriela Hiciano added 10 digs to go with five kills. Mackenzie Jefferson finished with a match-high 34 assists, eight digs, a kill and had two service aces.
 
Howard (10-11, 7-2 MEAC) enters the contest owing the league's longest active winning streak at four matches, following a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-23) victory over Delaware State on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The victory ended the Hornets' school record 16-match winning streak, which at the time was the longest in the MEAC this season and gave DSU (20-2, 8-1 MEAC) its first conference loss of the season. Cimone Woodard and Jennifer Bolden each had a team-leading eight kills, while Kayla Diaz and Milexa Cardona had 18 and 12 assists, respectively. Essence Bell finished with a match-high 10 digs and Tamar Well recorded a match-best five assisted blocks.
 
MSU SERIES NOTES AGAINST HU: Morgan State leads the all-time series 41-39 against Howard. The Lady Bison won the first meeting this season, 3-0 in Baltimore (10/8). Since the 2010 season, Morgan State has gone 4-9 against Howard at Burr Gymnasium, including two opportunities in both the Spring 2021 and the 2019 seasons. The Lady Bears split their two meetings in D.C. during the Spring season and dropped both contests at Howard in 2019, including the MEAC title match, which was also played at Howard.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will host Norfolk State on Sunday, Oct. 31 at Hill Field House. First serve is at 1 p.m. The Spartans won the first meeting 3-1 in Norfolk, Va. (10/10).
 
IT'S A HOME WIN: The Lady Bears picked up their first home win of the season in nine tries with a 3-0 defeat of South Carolina State on Homecoming (10/24). The win ended a 10-match losing skid at Hill Field House dating back to the 2021 Spring season.
 
STILL UNBEATEN: Morgan State improved to 25-0 all-time against South Carolina State, following a 3-0 victory over the Bulldogs for Homecoming (10/24). The win marked the second sweep of S.C. State this season.

A FRESH START: Morgan State began the second half of the MEAC schedule on Friday, Oct. 22, when it played host to North Carolina Central and dropped the match in four sets. Morgan State ended the first half going 1-6 in conference play.
  
NOT SO HOME FEELING: The 2021 campaign has not been kind to Morgan State at home. The Lady Bears enter Sunday's contest against Norfolk State (10/31) with a 1-8 record at Hill Field House.
 
SAYING GOODBYE: Morgan State will say goodbye to two seniors at the end of the season in two-year member Kendal Hoges and four-year member Jasmin Perry. The two will be honored during the Lady Bears' Senior Day festivities prior to their match against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on November 7 at 1 p.m.
 
BOZIER APPROACHING 500 WINS: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier entered the 2021 Fall season with 476 career victories, 24 wins shy of No. 500. She is now 20 wins away from the 500-win plateau. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 480 career victories as the volleyball coach, is also the softball program's all-time career leader with 161 victories in the nine seasons she coached at the helm.

BOZIER ENTERS 34TH SEASON: Morgan head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters her 34th season at the helm of the Lady Bear program. The all-time winningest coach at MSU (480), 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 first 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.

OPENING SERVE: Morgan State dropped to 9-20 in season openers since the 1993 season, after falling to visiting Cleveland State, 3-0 in the home opener (8/27). The Lady Bears' last opening day victory was a 3-2 win at home against Seton Hall in the opener of the Morgan/Towson Invitational (8/30/19).
  
MORGAN PICKED TIED FOR FOURTH IN MEAC: Morgan State was picked to finish tied for fourth with Maryland Eastern Shore in the eight-team Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) preseason poll, as voted by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. In 2020-21, the Lady Bears were picked to finish tied for third with Delaware State in the MEAC Northern Division and ended up third.
      
2021 CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED: Junior middle hitter Melanie Battle (La Plata, Md.) has been named 2021 team captain, while senior middle blockers Kendal Hoges (West Orange, N.J.) and Jasmin Perry (Bowie, Md.) will serve as co-captains.
 
WELCOME TO THE CAVE: Morgan State welcomes the addition of eight newcomers to the 2021 squad, three freshmen, three sophomore transfers and two junior transfers. Those newcomers are freshmen Trinity Carruthers (Grand Prairie, Texas), Madison Grace (Clinton Township, Mich.) and Kayla Gaddy-Middleton (Dayton, N.J.) along with sophomore transfers Makila Billingsley (Plainfield, N.J.), Justyus Jackson (Davenport, Iowa) and Mackenzie Jefferson (Prosper, Texas) and junior transfers Kamryn Brown (Evergreen Park, Ill.), Jadore Hayes (Grapevine, Texas).
 
MORGAN EARNS USMC/AVCA ACADEMIC AWARD AGAIN: 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 2020-21 academic year. Morgan State had a team GPA of 3.62. It marked the second consecutive year the team has earned the award. Last season Morgan State, which received the award for the first time in program history, posted a team GPA of 3.48 for the 2019-20 academic year.
  
2021 MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2021 MEAC Volleyball Championship returns back to Washington, D.C. after a year hiatus. The championship tournament, which was held in Norfolk, Va. at Norfolk State University during the 2021 Spring season, will take place November 19-21, 2021 at Burr Gymnasium on the campus of Howard University. The last time the tournament was held in the Nation's Capital was during the 2019 season. Morgan State would reach the title match that season, falling to host Howard in a five-set thriller.