Matches 1-4 (Baltimore Invite Tournament)
Friday-Saturday, August 27-28, 2021
Site: Baltimore, Md. (Hill Field House)
Live Video: Here
Notes: Morgan State | Binghamton | Cleveland State | Navy | Towson
 
Friday, Aug. 27
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-0) vs. Cleveland State "Vikings" (0-0)
Time: 10 a.m.
Series Record: Cleveland State leads, 1-0

Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-0) vs. Towson "Tigers" (0-0)
Time: 4 p.m.
Series Record: Towson leads, 19-4

Saturday, Aug. 28
Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-0) vs. Binghamton "Bearcats" (0-0)
Time: 10 a.m.
Series Record: Series tied, 1-1

Morgan State "Lady Bears" (0-0) vs. Navy "Midshipmen" (0-0)
Time: 4 p.m.
Series Record: Series tied, 5-5


BALTIMORE, Md. (Aug. 26, 2021)-The Morgan State volleyball team kicks off the 2021 campaign at home this weekend when it hosts the 2021 Baltimore Invite Tournament at Hill Field House. The Lady Bears take on Cleveland State in the tournament and season opener on Friday, Aug. 26 at 10 a.m. Morgan State will conclude the day when it takes on crosstown rival Towson at 4 p.m. The Lady Bears will be back in action on Saturday at 10 a.m. against Binghamton and concludes the tournament with a 4 p.m. contest against Navy. All matches will be streamed live on morganstatebears.com

   BALTIMORE INVITE SCHEDULE:
   Friday, August 27, 2021
   10 a.m. – Morgan State vs. Cleveland State
   1:30 p.m. – Binghamton vs. Navy
   4 p.m. – Morgan State vs. Towson
   6:30 p.m. – Cleveland State vs. Navy
 
   Saturday, August 28, 2021
   10 a.m. – Morgan State vs. Binghamton
   1:30 p.m. – Towson vs. Cleveland State
   4 p.m. – Morgan State vs. Navy
   6:30 p.m. – Towson vs. Binghamton

 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will stay close to home next week when they visit Towson for the Towson Invitational (Sept. 3-5). Morgan State will face Stony Brook in its opener on Friday, before taking on both Princeton and Loyola Maryland on Saturday. MSU will close out the tournament with a Sunday contest against the host Tigers.
 
OPENING SERVE: Morgan State is 9-19 in season openers since the 1993 season, after falling on the road at Temple, 3-2 in Philadelphia, Pa. (1/23/21). 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.
  
LAST WHISTLE: Morgan State concluded the 2021 Spring season with a 3-0 loss at rival Coppin State (3/28). Gabriela Hiciano concluded her freshman season with with a team-high 10 kills, while fellow freshman Alyssa Sampson had a season- and match-high 18 digs. Jasmin Perry totaled a career- and match-high five blocks.
 
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 (476), 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.
  
BOZIER THREE SHY OF 500: Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters the 2021 Fall season 14 wins shy of career victory No. 500. Riley-Bozier, who is the all-time winningest coach at Morgan State in any sport with 476 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.
  
TOURNAMENT EXPOSURE: The Lady Bears will take part in four regular season tournaments this year. Following the Baltimore Invite (Aug. 27-28), Morgan State will make the short trip to Towson, Md. to compete in the Towson Invitational (Sept. 3-5) against Stony Brook, Princeton, Loyola Maryland and host Towson. Next will be a trip to Fairfax, Va. to face Robert Morris, host George Mason and Marist in the George Mason Invitational (Sept. 10-11). The Lady Bears will conclude their regular season tournament schedule in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the co-hosted University of New Hampshire/Merrimack Tournament (Sept. 17-18), where Morgan will take on hosts Merrimack and New Hampshire along with Rhode Island.
 
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.
 
POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE: Morgan will face just one opponent this season (Towson) that reached the 2020 NCAA Volleyball Tournament in April 2021. The Lady Bears will face the rival Tigers twice this season on each other's home floor. The two will square off in Baltimore on Aug. 27 in the Baltimore Invite, before closing out their season series the following week on Sept. 5 in the finale of the Towson Invitational in Towson, Md.
 
2021 MEAC CHAMPIONSHIP: This year's 2021 MEAC Volleyball Championship will take place November 19-21 in Washington, D.C. at Burr Gymnasium on the campus of Howard University.