Oct. 24, 2010
Box Score
BALTIMORE, Md. - Freshman Maline Vaitai (Salt Lake City, Utah) tallied a career-high 21 kills and redshirt senior Samantha Chukwura (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in with 13 as the University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's volleyball team swept Morgan State, 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 26-24), at Hill Field House Sunday.
The win for UMES (17-9, 6-0 MEAC) pushed its winning streak to 11 while also extending its NCAA-leading conference winning streak to 36. Morgan State fell to 5-16 overall and 3-3 in MEAC play.
Vaitai hit .385 and Chukwura .526 to help the Hawks outhit the Lady Beras, .268-.119, on the day. UMES had 48 kills and 18 errors in 112 attacks while MSU totaled 31 kills and 19 errors in 101 attacks.
Freshman Jingqiao Li (Beijing, China) and junior Rebecca Prado (Annandale, N.J.) recorded a 13 and nine digs, respectively, and sophomore Stephanie Sierra (El Paso, Texas) assisted on 44 points.
"We faced a Morgan team that wouldn't go away today and we stayed composed late in each set to go 6-0 in conference play," said UMES head coach. Don Metil. "It's nice to see that even when some our key players struggle, as a team we pull through with our fundamental beliefs and gameplan execution."
The teams traded points until 16-all in the opening game before a Vaitai kill forced a Morgan State timeout at 21-19. That started a three-point stretch for UMES which used it to eventually take the game by four.
UMES led the entire way in the second game, scoring nine of the first 11 points. Morgan State cut the margin to three at 16-13 before a Hawks' timeout. UMES, though, was able to regain momentum, closing with a 9-4 run to take the middle frame on a block from Vaitai and Chukwura. Both players had three block assists on the day with Chukwura also picking up two block solos.
The third game was tight, featuring five ties and a lead change. The Hawks led, 18-14 and 20-116 on kills from Vaitai and Chukwura but MSU hung tough to knot the game at 24 with an Erin Cox kill, forcing extra points.
UMES prevailed with another Vaitai kill and a block by Prado and freshman Kaveinga Lea'Aetoa (Salt Lake City, Utah) to seal the match.
Cox paced the Lady Bears with 11 kills and Jourdan Lemons had 27 assists.
UMES travels to Delaware State Friday at 7 p.m.
