MSU Volleyball Opens Up 2012 Season This Weekend At Home In Battle At The Bay

BALTIMORE, Maryland - The Morgan State volleyball team will kick off its 2012 campaign this weekend (Aug. 24-25) when they host the Battle at the Bay tournament at Hill Field House. This will be the first year the Lady Bears will serve as host of the entire tournament and the third consecutive year Morgan State has served as host of at least one day.

The two-day tournament, formerly known as the Battle of Baltimore, featured the Baltimore area's Division I schools (Coppin State, Loyola-Md., Morgan State, Towson and UMBC) for a weekend get together. The University of Maryland-College Park and the Naval Academy (Navy) in Annapolis have also participated in the event when it was known as the Battle of Maryland.

This year's tournament will welcome its first opponent from outside the state of Maryland, as St. John's will replace Loyola-Md. Morgan State is a combined 1-9 in this tournament dating back to 2009 with its lone victory coming at Navy (9/4/09).

The Battle at the Bay gets underway on Friday, August 24th at noon when Towson takes on UMBC. The host Lady Bears will take to the court for the first time in 2012, when they face St. John's at 2:30 p.m. The St. John's match will mark the first season-opener at home for Morgan State since the 2004 season. The second half of Day 1 competition will start back up at 5 p.m. when UMBC faces Coppin State and concludes with St. John's and Towson meeting at 7:30 p.m.

The Lady Bears return to the court on Saturday, August 25th, when they take on UMBC at 10 a.m. St. John's and Coppin State will meet at 12:30 p.m., while Coppin State will conclude its tournament play against Towson at 3 p.m. UMBC and St. John's will meet at 5:30 p.m. and Morgan State will face Towson at 8 p.m. to wrap up the tournament. Morgan State and fellow Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) foe, Coppin State will not meet each other this weekend.

Last season the Lady Bears finished 10-19 overall, 8-4 in the MEAC good for second-place in the MEAC North Division. MSU head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier enters her 25th season at the helm of the Lady Bears' program and is 17 wins away from reaching 400.


COURTESY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION