Matches 9-11 (George Mason Invitational)
Friday-Saturday, September 10-11, 2021
Site: Fairfax, Va. (Recreation Athletic Complex)
 
Friday, Sept. 10, 2021
Morgan State vs. Robert Morris, 4 p.m.
Morgan State vs. George Mason, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021
Morgan State vs. Marist, 1 p.m.
 
Tournament Central: Here
Live Video: ESPN + (George Mason contest only)
Live Stats: Here
Notes: Morgan State | Robert Morris | George Mason | Marist
 

BALTIMORE, Md. (Sept. 9, 2021)-The Lady Bears will travel to Fairfax, Va. to compete in the George Mason Invitational hosted by George Mason University (Sept. 10-11). Morgan State will face Robert Morris (4-2) in the opener on Friday at 4 p.m., before taking on the host Patriots (2-3) at 7 p.m. MSU closes out the weekend on Saturday with a 1 p.m. contest against Marist (3-5). All matches will be played at the Recreation Athletic Complex on the George Mason campus. The contest against host GMU will air live on ESPN +.
 
MSU AGAINST THE FIELD: Robert Morris leads the all-time series, 7-3. The two programs last met in the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament (9/10/16), hosted by UMBC. The Colonials would defeat Morgan State 3-0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-11)…George Mason and Morgan State are tied 1-1 apiece. The Lady Bears evened up the series with a 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 16-25, 25-23, 15-13) victory over the Patriots in the title match of the Red Flash Classic (9/20/14) in Loretto, Pa….Morgan State leads the all-time series against Marist, 1-0. The lone meeting between the two came during the 1994 season, a 3-2 road win by Morgan State.
 
NEXT UP: The Lady Bears will travel north next weekend to North Andover, Mass. and Durham, New Hampshire to compete in the UNH/Merrimack Tournament (Sept. 17-18), co-hosted by the University of New Hampshire and Merrimack University. It will be the fourth and final regular season tournament for Morgan State during the 2021 season. The Lady Bears will square off against both co-hosts on Friday, first taking on Merrimack at noon, before facing New Hampshire at 3 p.m. Both contests will be played at Merrimack in North Andover, Mass. Morgan State will conclude the tournament on Saturday against Rhode Island at 11 a.m. in Durham, New Hampshire. 
 
LAST WHISTLE: Morgan State dropped a 3-0 decision at crosstown rival Towson in the finale of the Towson Invitational (9/5). Justyus Jackson hit .400 and totaled six kills, two blocks, a dig and a service ace in the loss. Jadore Hayes collected nine digs, while Mackenzie Jefferson finished with nine assists. Melanie Battle and Makila Billingsley led the Lady Bears with four assisted blocks apiece.
 
HOGES NAMED TO TOWSON INVITATIONAL TEAM: Senior middle blocker Kendal Hoges was named to the Towson Invitational All-Tournament Team (9/5). Hoges finished the weekend with 12 assisted blocks, nine kills, three digs and an assist. A native of West Orange, N.J., she recorded a season-best six kills against Loyola Maryland, while hitting .600 and had four assisted blocks and a digs against the Greyhounds (9/4). Earlier in the day Hoges had four blocks, two kills and a dig against Princeton.
 
JACKSON EARNS BALTIMORE INVITE HONORS: Sophomore transfer Justyus Jackson was named to the Baltimore Invite All-Tournament Team (8/28). A native of Davenport, Iowa, Jackson averaged 1.77 kills and 1.15 blocks per set in four matches. She led the host Lady Bears with a total of 15 blocks, including three solo blocks and finished second on the team with 23 kills. Jackson led Morgan State with a hitting percentage of .370, while also adding three service aces and six digs. Jackson recorded a career-best five blocks and a career-high three service aces to go with four kills and two digs against Binghamton.
 
OPENING SERVE: Morgan State is 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.
  
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 APPROACHING 500 WINS: 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.
  
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.
 
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 returns to Washington, D.C. after a year hiatus. The championship tournament 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.