Unforced errors costly in Coppin loss

by Keith Henry

If there’s any chance that Coppin State volleyball can qualify for this year’s MEAC Tournament, they’ll have to play a lot better than they did tonight at Hill Field House. Countless unforced errors proved to be their undoing as Morgan State took advantage and defeated Coppin State 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-20).

It only took 82 minutes for the Lady Bears this time to handle business. In the last meeting at the PEC, MSU came from behind to defeat the Lady Eagles in five games. “I think Morgan State did a better job this match than the last match we played of staying in system,” said CSU head coach Millicent Sylvan-Van Norden. “They really just beat up on our middles. Our middles were not playing smart today. We were just reacting to whatever the setter was doing.”

“I’m just happy that we didn’t have to put ourselves in a bad situation like we did when we went over to Coppin that first time,” said MSU head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier.

But there were a few differences then. Mainly one was that outside hitter Erin Cox was playing the libero position and MSU head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier was still tinkering with her lineup to see what fits.

In the first game, Morgan State jumped out to a 16-9 advantage. 10 of those 16 points were off of their own errors from net violations to bad serves and double contact calls. Coppin State head coach Millicent Sylvan-Van Norden said about the unforced errors, (quote)

It didn’t get better from there as the Lady Eagles scored five points for the rest of the game.

In the second game, Morgan State’s defense limited the hitting of Janka Schmitt. Also, the errors continued to plague Coppin State (4-18, 1-6 MEAC) as they trailed 6-3 to start. But the Lady Eagles came back by taking advantage of a few double contact violations from Natalie Chafeh. Also, the tipping of setter Kristine Bindule came into play. Bindule’s back to back tip shots hit the floor to help the Lady Eagles take a 10-9 advantage.

But after Salena Weekly’s serve hit the net to tie the game at 10, Morgan State went on a 9-2 run starting with an Erin Cox kill. It ended when Vanity Massey’s kill attempt went long to give the Lady Bears a 19-12 advantage. The Lady Eagles would creep within 20-16 on a missed kill attempt from Zurie Smith, but they didn’t close it further as an Ariel Richard kill attempt hit the net to end the second game.

Kierra Outlin led the Lady Bears with eight kills on the night while Richard led the Lady Eagles with seven.

Coppin State jumped on the Lady Bears early in the third set with a pair of kills from Richard to go up 2-0. But Morgan State (5-17, 3-3 MEAC) would answer with five straight on kills from Cox, Janelle Wilson and Outlin plus a bad set from Bindule and Schmitt’s kill attempt hitting the net to put the Lady Bears ahead to stay 5-2.

The Lady Eagles pushed within 6-4 on a Nangeeshie Plaud serving error, but never any closer as Outlin killed a ball, Schmitt hit another kill attempt into the net and Torie Livingston was whistled for a bad set to push the MSU advantage to 9-4. Later on, a kill from Cox ended the match.

Morgan State just reached their halfway point of the MEAC season in reasonable shape.

As for the Lady Eagles, their MEAC Tournament prospects took a hit. Coach Sylvan-Van Norden said about this, "They came into this evening’s contest only three games behind second place Hampton. They’ll need to make a serious run in order to look at making it as the fourth seed in the North.