DOVER, Delaware - The Hawks volleyball squad finished the regular season way the same way they began back in August-with four straight wins. The last win came Sunday in a sweep of Delaware State (25-16, 25-17, 25-18) at Memorial Hall in Dover.

Maryland Eastern Shore concluded the campaign with a record of 17-12 (10-2 MEAC), earning the highest number of conference victories since 2012. Delaware State falls to 1-27 (1-11 MEAC) on the season.

"Today we played with purpose and took care of business." Hawks coach Toby Rens said. "Our middles worked very hard throughout the match. They controlled the net very well with their hitting and blocking."

As a team the Hawks recorded a .418 hitting percentage. Sophomores Rachel Kayongo (Northridge, California) and Lucia Babic (Sisak, Croatia) struck nine kills each, and senior Mere Serea (Suva, Fiji) finished with seven kills and no errors on ten attempts with four blocks, two of them solo.

Freshman Ivana Blazevic (Zagreb, Croatia) averaged ten assists per set with a team high seven digs. Blazevic also tied with Kayongo for a match high three service aces. Junior Kirstin Fink (Tucson, Arizona) ended the afternoon a perfect 4-for-4 on attacks with three block assists and two aces.

Delaware State jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, but the Hawks rallied on a 5-0 run to take the lead, thanks to two kills by Babic and an ace by Blazevic. The Hornets tried to kep it close, but another 5-0 run by the Hawks gave The Shore the set as they rode the momentum to a nine point win.

The Hawks stormed out to an 8-3 lead behind the spectacular serves of freshman Iva Vujosevic (Bar, Montenegro), which included one ace. Four more aces-including a pair from Kayongo-helped keep the Hornets at bay, even when they closed the gap to two points at the 18-16 mark. From that point the Hawks sealed the set with a 7-1 run.

Serea and sophomore Zuzana Ondruskova (Bilovec, Czech Republic) delivered kills to begin set three, and along with a Fink ace the Hawks raced out to a 3-0 lead. Delaware State would come back to tie the set at five apiece, but a Babic kill gave the Hawks the lead back. They would not relinquish the lead again, using a 12-3 run to complete the sweep.

"This was a great way to finish off the regular season." said Rens. "Now we are looking forward to hosting the MEAC tournament."

The Shore has wrapped up the second seed out of the MEAC North and will face either Bethune-Cookman or North Carolina A&T in the conference tournament at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 18^th. Maryland Eastern Shore will host all seven matches of the tournament, starting Friday and ending on Sunday.