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December 8, 1997
By Lamont Germany
The history making Morgan State University volleyball season came to an endon Friday evening December 5, 1997. The Lady Bears were defeated 3-0 (15-2, 15-7,15-7) by the University of Southern California Lady Trojans. The Women of Troy wereplaying on their home floor, and got 9 kills apiece from Jasmina Marinkovic andJennifer Kessey to beat the Lady Bears on the USC campus in Los Angeles, CA. Morgan went down,but not without a fight. The Lady Bears lost the first game, but took a 5-0lead in the 2nd game, and appeared to seize the momentum. However, the Women of Troy foughtback and eventually won the 2nd game and went on to take the match.Morgan got terrific performances from senior Jakaria Stewart (8 kills, .467hitting percentage) and junior Tiffany Pickens (5 kills, .444 hitting percentage).Junior Deonne Brown led the way on defense with 6 digs. The Lady Bears put up a good fight, considering they had to travel all the way across the country to play thenumber 7 team in the nation on their floor. The defeat means Morgan finishes 1997 with animpressive 25-10 record. The loss ended a 14 match winning streak by MSU.
TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS.... The theme for the 1997 season was "StrictlyBusiness", and by any measure the Lady Bears took care of their business in 1997. Theywent undefeated in the MEAC Northern Division (10-0), they ripped off a total of 15 consecutive MEAC wins, they won the MEAC Tournament, they placed 3 playerson the ALL-MEAC TEAM, Coach Ramona Riley Bozier was voted COACH OF THE YEAR in the MEAC, they became the 1st historically black institution to advance to the NCAATournament, the 1st MEAC school to win an NCAA volleyball Play-in match with their winover Grambling State, the 1st Morgan program to advance to the NCAA Division I Tournament in any team sport, they tiedthe All-Time Morgan volleyball record for wins in a season (25), and they became thefirst Morgan volleyball team to receive an NCAA Division I ranking, as they ended theseason ranked 10th in District 3 of the NCAA. The Lady Bears took care of business in 1997.
LIVIN' LARGE IN L-A... Despite the defeat, the Lady Bears enjoyed their tripto Los Angeles. The trip included a tour of the Warner Brothers production studios in Hollywood. The team got a chance to watch the final sound mixing of theupcoming Kevin Cosner film "The Postman".
RAIN...RAIN...GO AWAY.... Whoever said "It never rains in SouthernCalifornia", lied. The Lady Bears were in L-A for 3 and a half days and didn't see much sun.It rained for most of the visit, however we understand the sun finally came out on Monday. Unfortunately the Lady Bears left town on Sunday.
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