PRINCESS ANNE, MD --- For the second year in a row, the Howard women's volleyball team has advanced to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship Game.

The North 1-seed Bison advanced with a 3-1 victory over South 2-seed Florida A&M on Saturday afternoon at Maryland Eastern Shore's Hytche Center.

Freshman outside hitter Courtney Dalton recorded the best match of her young career, finishing with a season & match high 21 kills and a season-best .581 hitting percentage (21-3-31). In Howard's first two tournament games, Dalton is hitting .547 with 34 total kills and only five misses.

Sophomore Khaila Donaldson & junior Katherine Broussard each narrowly missed a double-double in the match: Donaldson logged 15 kills and nine digs while Broussard had 15 digs - second only to junior libero Morgan Marlbrough's match-high 28 - and nine kills.

At the net, juniors Janaya Hampton (5) and Dominique Cleggett (4) accounted for half of the Bison's 18 assisted blocks.

Howard (17-13) jumped out to a 2-0 set lead while never playing from behind but found itself in a battle in the third. Early on, the Bison found themselves down by four (10-6) to Florida A&M (8-21). Howard responded by going on a 10-4 run to take a 16-14 edge. After FAMU went back up by three (23-20), HU was able to come back again, outscoring the Lady Rattlers 4-1 to tie the match at 24-24. However, FAMU doubled up Howard 4-2 the rest of the way to win a set that featured ten ties and six lead changes.

In the end, Howard proved to be too much for FAMU as the Bison went wire-to-wire in the fourth set.

NEXT UP
Howard will face the winner of the other semifinal between Bethune-Cookman and Morgan State at Noon on Sunday, November 22.