BOWIE, Md. – Bowie State University hosted day one a CIAA Volleyball Round-Up and fell short to Johnson C. Smith (3-0) and Livingstone (1-3) on Saturday afternoon. The setbacks put the Bulldogs record at 0-6 overall and 0-2 in the conference.  PHOTO GALLERY vs, JOHNSON C. SMITH (Courtesy of Roderick Washington)
 
The Bulldogs faced the Golden Bulls of Johnson C. Smith in the opening match and lost by scores of 13-25, 16-25 and 21-25. Bowie State accounted for 84 total attacks and 24 kills versus Johnson C. Smith, with freshman Sydney Tucker (Columbia, Md.) leading the way with seven kills while senior Kiana Moore (Newark, Del.) added six kills. The Bowie State trio of senior Tia Williams (Abingdon, Md.), junior Courtney Crawford (Lanham, Md.) and Caitland Okorafor (Hyattsville, Md.) tallied three kills each.
 
Freshman Oladia Menchaca (Landover, Md.) was responsible for 11 of the Bulldogs' 22 assists. Junior Brittainy Houck (Burns, Ore.) had a team-high six digs against the Golden Bulls and freshman Bianca Tucker contributed seven assists and a team-high four service aces to go along with three digs.
 
Johnson C. Smith was led by Taylor Hendrickson and Amirah Burnett with four kills apiece and Cydney Calhoun chipped in a team-high 10 assists in the win over Bowie State.
 
In Bowie State's second match against Livingstone, Moore's stat line included a team-high 10 kills on 21 attacks to go along with three assists, one service ace, and nine digs. Williams ranked second on the team in kills, knocking down eight on 16 attacks while teammates Houck, Okorafor and Tucker recorded seven, six and five kills respectively. Menchaca and Tucker recorded double-digit assists for the Bulldogs with 15 and 10 respectively. Menchaca paced the team with four service aces while junior Kilana Jenkins had a match-high 12 digs.
 
Shantell Billups, Jekisha Rhymes and Ajia Long accounted for all of Livingstone's kills, putting down 10, eight and six respectively. Stevee Cotton was the leading set up artist for the Blue Bears, tallying 22 of the 31.
 
Bowie State returns to the court on Sunday (9/17), hosting Fayetteville State at 11 a.m. in the A.C. Jordan Arena.