Hawks soar over Howard in five set thriller
 

PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore defeated Howard University in five sets on Sunday afternoon.
 

With the victory, the Hawks are now 14-9 overall with a 7-4 record in MEAC play. The Bison fall to 12-12 on the year and 8-3 in the conference.


The Hawks won the first two sets with scores of 25-22 and 25-23. HU bounced back with a 25-19 win in the third set and a 25-20 fourth set victory. The Hawks improved to 5-1 in five set matches this season with a 15-13 decision over the Bison in Sunday's final set.
 
 
With eight ties and three lead changes in the opening set, the Hawks took advantage of three late attacking errors by Howard combined with two kills by Ranyla Griggs to take the 1-0 lead.
 

Howard appeared to be in control in the second set with a 17-9 lead before the Hawks gradually closed the gap. Trailing 22-19, UMES was once again a beneficiary of three errors by the Bison to knot the score up at 22-22. Valeria Matias served an ace to give the Hawks its first lead of the set. Griggs recorded two more kills as the Hawks completed the comeback to go up 2-0 in the match.
 

Midway through the third with the score tied up at 16-16, HU's Cimone Woodard stepped up with four kills for the Bison down the stretch to help her team extend the match to a fourth set. HU jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the fourth and went on to close the set with back-to-back kills by Rya McKinnon.
 

In the fifth set, the teams played to four lead changes and six ties. Knotted up at 13-13, An attacking error from Howard put the ball in the hands of sophomore Anjola Omolewa to serve for the match. Omolewa's serve caught the line infront of the Howard bench for match point as the Hawks erupted in celebration on their side of the floor.
 

In the five set thriller, two players recorded 20 or more kills in Griggs and Woodard. Griggs finished with one better than Woodard with a new career-high 21 kills along with a hitting percentage of .326.
 

As a team, UMES hitters combined for 56 kills and 17 errors for a hitting percentage of .273. HU finished the afternoon with 71 kills and 25 errors for a .261 hitting percentage. The Bison committed 12 service errors compared to just four by the Hawks.
 

The Hawks will continue MEAC play on the road on Friday when they play at North Carolina Central at 6 pm.