BEAUMONT, Texas -- The heat in Beaumont, Texas was no match for the heat the Howard University volleyball team brought to the Cardinal Classic hosted by Lamar University. The Bison had an impressive showing in McDonald Gym, winning all three of the games they played. The Bison's performance landed three of their players on the All-Tournament team with senior setter Tamia Dockery taking home Most Valuable Player honors. Sophomores Jurnee Tipton and Fola Wilson rounded out the All-Tournament team from the Howard side. Howard's record is now 5-2. The Bison travel to the Rutgers Invitational in New Jersey where they play September 7-8. The first match is against Rutgers University on Friday at 10:30 a.m. Howard University vs. Texas Southern
3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-21)
The Texas Southern Tigers were outmatched by the Bison. Howard held Texas Southern to .099 attack percentage. The Bison maintained the lead majority of each set and put up more kills, aces, blocks, assists and digs than the Tigers.
"Against Texas Southern I thought we played pretty well. We didn't do anything crazy great. We just kept with the momentum that we built last weekend and we're continuing to build on our serve receive, offense and defense," said head coach Shaun Kupferberg. "There was plenty of room for improvement but at the same time we didn't have anything that caused us problems and prevented us from winning matches."
Middle blocker Olubunmi Okunade led the team with 11 kills. Okunade also had two blocks. Outside hitter Marcelle Butler recorded eight kills and two Blocks. Setter Tamia Dockery led in assists and aces, tallying 30 and three. Junior Kira Porter had six kills and three blocks. Jurnee Tipton posted two aces, seven digs and an assist. Fola Wilson had 14 digs and two aces. Jurnee Farrell had three assists. Sophomore Abby Morrow had five digs.
Howard University vs. Lamar University
3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-10, 30-28)
The Cardinal came out hard and heavy, taking the first set from the Bison after Howard was up 11-4. Lamar fought back and tied the game, 21-21. Three errors from the Bison ultimately handed the game to the Cardinal who closed the set with a kill by Tomar Thomas.
"Lamar is a big hard hitting team. We came out and we played really well to start but we were affected by a lot of errors late in the first set. Luckily we were able to come back and correct things in sets two and three," head coach Shaun Kupferberg said.
The Bison were aggressive in sets two and three. They overpowered the Cardinal in a 25-10 win in the third set. It looked like the Bison had found their stride and would easily take set four but the Cardinal made them work for every point. A hard fought fourth set ended with both teams going beyond standard regulation. The result was a 30-28 win for Howard.
"In set four we were up by a lot but then we had a lot of hitting errors and serving errors. We have to work to correct those to win against Southern University. That's really our limiting factor of how well we're going to play this year. We can be an elite team if we get rid of those. If not, we are going to struggle," stated Kupferberg.
Jurnee Tipton posted 17 kills and two assists. Marcelle Butler and Kira Porter had 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Tamia Dockery had a whopping 49 assists. Defensively, Olubunmi Okunade led the team in blocks with five. Courtney Dalton had two blocks. Kira Porter had one block and one assist. Jurnee Farrell had 11 digs and an ace. Busisiwe Banda also served an ace. Abby Morrow added 9 digs.
Howard University vs. Southern University
3-1 (25-17, 26-24, 19-25, 25-19)
Howard played an action-packed game against Southern University. Both teams attacked above .200 and posted a fairly equal amount of blocks, assists and digs. The Bison shined in kills and aces, having 57 kills to their 46 and seven aces to their one.
"We struggled a little bit getting up in the morning. We came out a little bit flat. Southern did a good job bringing a lot of energy to this match and forced us really to get out of our shell. They pushed us both on hitting and blocking, making our back row move a little bit more than we're used to," head coach Shaun Kupferberg commented.
The game was close in the second set as the Jaguars kept on the heels of the Bison as they started to pull away in the end. The Bison would prevail in a 26-24 win. Not to be outdone, the jaguars took the third set to force set four. In set four Howard's consistency on the attack led them to a 25-19 win.
"We really didn't pick up defensively where we left off until late in that fourth game. It was a little disappointing from that side. We're very excited that we were able to hit consistently through the match. We're excited that we were able to win the tournament and have a pretty even performance. We have a lot to improve on before next week, obviously serving as well as some defensive issues but we're excited about the victory and bringing home another trophy," expressed Kupferberg.
Junior Jurnee Tipton had an outstanding game, tallying 15 kills, eight digs, three aces and one assist. Senior Tamia Dockery recorded 45 assists, 10 digs, four kills and a block. Fola Wilson had 26 digs. Kira Porter posted four blocks.
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About Howard University Athletics
The Howard University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics sponsors 19 NCAA Division I men and women varsity sports. The programs represent six conferences: the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA), Sun Belt Conference, Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and Atlantic Sun (ASUN) Conference. Visit www.hubison.com to leaHrn more.
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