Morgan Volleyball outlasts Howard in five

by Keith Henry

WASHINGTON- The Morgan State Lady Bears made it interesting this past Sunday afternoon at the Burr Gymnasium. After winning the first two games, the Lady Bears might've thought that they would put away the Howard Lady Bison rather easily in the third game. Instead, Howard won the next two games to force a game five. That's when Morgan State finally got serious and held off Howard 3-2 (25-17, 25-23, 17-25, 19-25, 15-11).

"That's exciting that we came out victorious," said MSU head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier. "I'm glad. that's all I can say right now. I'm really glad that we did what we did.Personally, we should be 2-0 if we had played with that same intensity against UMES (a 3-0 loss Friday in Princess Anne), it would've been a different outcome. To still get the win, I hate that we went five, showed that we can keep fighting and not give up."

The first two games had similar plots. Howard jumps on top early, but MSU made pivotal runs in the middle of the games. It was largely due in part to their tip game which was something Coach Riley-Bozier wanted her team to execute more often. "It's a few things we've been talking about. Just play smart. You don't have to play for power, play for placement. Stop making so many errors hitting wise. That's what we did in games one and two."

Generally known for her hard hitting, sophomore outside hitter Erin Cox stepped up during those games and mixed it up. Her tip game did more damage to Howard, leading the Bears with 19 kills and 14 digs in the match.
In games three and four, Howard (4-15, 1-1 MEAC) did major damage off the hitting of Tosin Ellebute, who led everyone with 22 kills. Also Keri Partridge stepped up for Howard with 16 kills and a .419 hitting percentage.

In the critical fifth game, Morgan State (3-14, 1-1 MEAC) scored five of the first six points. the first two points off of broken plays for Morgan. The first was from a Jourdan Lemons set which Dominque Bozier went off balance and hit the ball to the middle of the Howard side. The second off a Cox hit that came off the net and onto the Howard side. MSU would stretch the advantage to 10-4 on a kill from Shaundalyn Taylor, forcing Howard to take a timeout.

Howard rallied to within 10-8 on a couple of Jiyana Brown kills and a kill each from Ellebute and Partridge which forced an MSU timeout.

The momentum changer took place on the next point when Bozier blocked Partridge in the middle. Bozier said, "Being a senior, and the ball is going to me, a couple times I felt like it was my chance to lead the team at this point and time. even though I wasn't successful at scoring, I know I had them scrambling and my teammates backed me up and they finished my plays. That was very exciting for me to be able to put my team in that position and had the game on my back at that point and time."

"I thought that we got off to a slow start in the first two sets." said Howard head coach Dawn Barnes. "We came back and turned it on in the third and fourth sets and then Morgan State wanted it more than we did. We couldn't capitalize on some of their mistakes."