BALTIMORE, Maryland – On the road in Baltimore, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball team took a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-23, 25-20) against Morgan State University. The Hawks (5-13, 3-4 MEAC) dominated the match, winning battles at the net and playing solid defense to keep rallies going.
 
"Nice to get a sweep," head coach Trevor Callarman said. "It was nice to see our middles pop off a little bit – Soleil (Cotton) and Charlize (Williams). We didn't have a ton on the outside today, so it was good to have those players for us."
 
The Hawks were able to jump out to a 9-6 lead in the first set until Bears (2-19, 1-6 MEAC) took advantage of two attack errors and then went on a three-point run to take a 11-12 lead. Both teams would trade points up until the 18^th point when the Bears started to commit attacking errors to fall behind to 23-20.
 
With the lead, Sophia Chacon set up Charlize Williams for her fourth kill of the set, then finished it off herself with a setter dump for the 25^th point.
 
In the second set the Hawks were fighting from behind from the opening serve, falling quickly behind 2-6 to the Bears following a handful of errors. It took a five-point run fueled by Chacon at the service line, hitting two aces in a row to make it 12-11, to give the Hawks the momentum that was lacking early in the set.
 
Morgan responded quickly, with two four-point runs sandwiching a pair of points by the Hawks, getting the host to a 15-18 lead. Nkemjika Ikemefuna put the offense on her shoulders for much of the rest of the second, getting three of the Hawks final six points as they once again fought back to eke out the 25-23 set win.
 
"In practice this week we worked on playing down," Callarman said. "It came into play today."
 
After falling behind early in the second set, the Hawks came out firing in the third set, grabbing four straight points before the Bears were able to go on a run of their own to tie it up. The Hawks went out to an 8-5 lead only for Morgan to go on a five-point run to take a small 9-11 lead.
 
Following a serve error by Morgan, the Hawks scored five straight to go up 16-13 and kept the pressure on defensively by not letting the Bears score two points in a row for the rest of the match.
 
"We stuck to the game plan," Callarman said. "We knew we wanted to minimize our errors and we did. It allowed us to chip away."
 
The offense was led by Ikemefuna's 10 kills and Charlize Williams' seven on 13 attempts with no errors – Chacon was often the setter, leading the team with 18 assists. Williams was also the top blocker, with two solo and two assisted blocks, and Isil Yilmaz had a team leading 13 digs.
 
With seven Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference games down, the Hawks will be running it back through the schedule starting with Norfolk State on Friday, with first serve coming at 6 p.m. in the Hytche. Currently the Spartans sit one spot ahead of the Hawks in the rankings and are coming off a loss to North Carolina Central on Sunday.
 
Follow the action on Twitter via @ESHawksVBall.