WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Howard University volleyball team showed out in front of its home crowd with a 3-1 win over UMBC on Tuesday night in Burr Gym. With the victory, the Bison are now 4-0 while the Retrievers fall to 2-2.
Junior Jessica Young finished with a match-high 13 kills. Sophomore Courtney Dalton and junior Khaila Donaldson added 10 and nine kills, respectively.
Senior Morgan Marlbrough came up with 14 digs and classmate Katherine Broussard tallied 10 digs. Sophomore Tamia Dockery had her third straight double-double on 32 assists and 12 digs. Senior Whitney Fields was a force at the net, coming up with seven blocks.
The Bison started the match on a 10-4 run, which featured six errors by the Retrievers. However, UMBC went on a run of its own to close the gap to 12-10 making Howard use a timeout. The Bison scored the next five points with a pair coming from blocks by Fields. Howard continued to pull away and Young's spike closed the set, 25-15.
The second set opened much like the first but UMBC battled back to tie the score at 17-17 and send the Bison to the bench. The two team traded errors before Howard put up five consecutive points on kills from sophomore Olubunmi Okunade, Dalton and Young for a 23-20 lead. The Retrievers got as close as 24-22 but an attack error end the set in favor of the home team, 25-22.
Howard was in control for the majority of the third set, taking a 17-12 upper hand. The Bison had to burn a timeout after the Retrievers got out on a 10-5 run to lock the score at 22-22. UMBC took the next pair of points due to Howard errors and claimed the set on a service ace, 25-22.
The two teams traded points in the fourth set until the Bison went up 13-9 and UMBC called for time. The Retriever capitalized on back-to-back service aces to get within one, 15-14, but that would be as close as they would come. Howard tacked on four kills to extend the lead to 24-18 but dropped the set, 25-18, on a service error.
The Bison are headed to South Bend, Ind. for the Shamrock Invitational on Friday, Sept. 2 and Saturday, Sept. 3. The Bison will face tournament host Notre Dame, Coastal Carolina and Purdue.
