Morgan State head coach Ramona Riley-Bozier will enter her 25th season at the helm of the Lady Bears’ volleyball program this season and she is enthusiastic about the possibilities of the 2012 campaign.
Last season was an up and down one for Morgan State. The Lady Bears began the season on a high note winning their first two matches for the first time since 1999. The back-to-back victories over Saint Peter’s and Providence, which came during the La Salle Invitational, also provided Coach Riley-Bozier with her 374th and 375th wins of her coaching career.
“I really didn’t know what to expect with that group because we had a lot of new people, the team was young and of the returning players we had coming back we only had really one veteran that was a consistent starter for us, which was Erin [Cox],” said Riley-Bozier. “So, I really didn’t have a whole lot of high expectation, but it was exciting starting out the year with those two wins in the tournament, so at that time things looked to be pretty good.”
Morgan State then dropped its next 13 matches in the midst of losing 17 of 18 matches, before putting together a five-match winning streak and finishing the season 10-19 overall and an 8-4 mark in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) North Division, good for second place. The 10 wins were the most in four seasons, since the 2007 team won 11 matches, which was also the last time the Lady Bears finished as high as second in the division. The eight league victories were the most since 2006 when that team went 9-1 in conference play.
“I think when freshman Nangeeshie [Plaud] got hurt things just went downhill,” said Riley-Bozier. “Even when she came back, mentally she wasn’t there how we needed her to be. We just couldn’t find a way to win and find a person who could generate enough offensive for us. We didn’t have a true libero at the start of the season, so having to move the one person who could score for us to the libero position helped, but it also took away some of the offense. After we moved Erin from libero back to the outside position then we started to do some good things.” Source
