Bison come out strong in first conference matchup
Tuesday night, the Howard University women’s volleyball team took on their first MEAC opponent of the season in North Carolina Central University. Howard, just coming off a 2-1 finish at the Saint Francis volleyball tournament in New York, was looking to send a statement to the Eagles and the entire MEAC conference.
“[NCCU is] kind of our rivals because we both came in last in the conference last year,” junior middle blocker Assata Conway said. “So we really wanted to come out and make a statement.”
The lady Bison didn’t get off to the best of starts as the Eagles got out to a quick 5-1 lead in the first set, but Howard was able to battle back despite their four missed serves in the first set alone.
As both teams traded blows back and forth, the first set ended up knotted at 25 a piece. Then, junior middle blocker Destinee Harrison pushed Howard ahead after an amazing sliding dig off a serve that tipped the top of the net, which led to a Bison kill putting them ahead 26-25. With a set point in hand, Howard worked the ball to junior outside hitter Meagan Lagerlef who smashed the ball into the open court earning Howard the first set.
The second set was another close one, but this time the lady Bison got off to a much better start. Harrison set the tone for set two, ending the very first point with a kill. She would have six on the night.
Howard won the first four points of the second set, but this time it was the Eagles who fought their way back, battling hard to eventually tie the set up at 12.
Down 18-20 Conway got Howard back into the set with two spikes in a row, tying the game at 20 apiece. After trading points and with the set tied at 21, Lagerlef spiked the ball for a winner putting Howard up 22-21. NCCU then called a timeout, but it didn’t do much good as Howard came out and won the last three points of the set allowing them to head into halftime with a 2-0 advantage.
Howard came out of halftime and took a 5-0 lead in the third set. This quick start seemed to crush the Eagles’ spirit, as the lady Bison caught fire in the final set. Recording 16 kills and only three errors, Howard was now playing a lot cleaner.
“We knew we were playing around with them in the first two sets,” Conway said. “So [at halftime] our coach basically told us to go out and end it.”
The team did just that as Lagerlef hit her 11th kill of the night to send the Eagles packing with a third set score of 25-10. Despite the clean sweep, Howard was not extremely pleased with their play.
“We didn’t play up to par, but we’re just going to carry this momentum into the weekend and hopefully we can get more wins,” Conway said.