WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The Bowie State Bulldogs volleyball team (0-2) opened the 2017 season with tremendous effort, but came up on the short end on day one of West Chester University's Ram Fest. The Bulldogs dropped its opening match to Millersville (Pa.) by scores of 9-25, 12-25 and 18-25 and were defeated by Franklin Pierce by scores of 12-15, 19-26 and 16-25.
 
Freshmen Oladia Menchaca (Landover, Md.) and Caitland Okorafor (Hyattsville, Md.) paced the Bulldogs with 15 attacks apiece over the two matches. Manchaca also led Bowie State with a team-high eight kills. Senior Tia Williams (Abingdon, Md.) accounted for 14 attacks over Friday's opening day matches while junior Brittainy Houck (Burns, Ore.) along with redshirt sophomore Brianna Myers (Jessup, Md.) contributed a dozen attacks each.
 
Freshmen Kilana Jenkins (Bridgeport, Conn.) tallied 10 attacks over the two matches. Freshman Karen Diaz-Aviles led Bowie State with a team-high five service aces in the teams opening matches of the season.
 
In Bowie State's first match versus Millersville, the Bulldogs were led by Houck with five kills to go along with one set, one dig, one block solo and one block assist. Diaz-Aviles was the teams' top server, recording three aces against the Marauders.
 
The Bulldogs were led by Menchaca and Williams in terms of kills in match two against Franklin Pierce, leading the attack with six and four kills respectively. Menchaca also led the Bulldogs with three service aces, two digs and one block assists against Franklin Pierce's Ravens. Diaz-Aviles picked up a team-high six digs in the nightcap.
 
Bowie State returns to action in the Ram Fest on Saturday (9/2), taking on host West Chester (Pa.) at 10 a.m. and we close out the Bulldogs' participation versus Salem International at 12 p.m.