Washington, D.C. (Nov. 20, 2011) --- The Delaware State volleyball team is one win away from capturing the 2021 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament championship. The second-seeded Hornets advanced to Sunday evening's nationally-televised tournament final with a 3-1 victory over No. 3 seed Coppin State at Howard University's Burr Gymnasium this evening.
This will be Delaware State's first MEAC Tournament finals appearance since 2010, and the Hornets are seeking the school's first conference championship since the 1986 squad captured the lone title in team history.
Delaware State will face host Howard University in the title match. The Hornets and Bison shared the MEAC regular season championship with 12-2 conference records this year, although Howard claimed the No. 1 seed through a tiebreaker formula.
The teams split their two 2021 regular season matches. Delaware State won the first contest 3-1 in the conference opener for each team on Sep. 24 in Dover, Del.
Howard avenged the loss with a 3-0 victory over the Hornets on Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C., snapping DSU's school-record 16-match win streak in the process.
The MEAC Tournament champion receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA championship tourney.
The Hornets also added to their school record with win No. 26 this season (26-3).
Coppin State, the 2021 Preseason MEAC favorite, jumped out in front in the match with a 25-21 victory in set one.
The Hornets evened the match with a 25-20 win in the second set.
In set three, Delaware State trailed 20-15 before rallying to score the last 10 points for the 25-20 win, and a two-sets-to-one lead in the match.
In the fourth set,  the Hornets scored the first six points and opened up a 12-6 lead on ace by Jasmal Cruz. DSU held its biggest edge in the set and pulled to within a point of closing out the match after opening up a 24-17 advantage on a kill by Mayah Ngundam.  After the Eagles scored the next two points, the Hornets wrapped up the contest and punched their ticket to the final on a kill by Karen Cordero.
DSU's Valerio Otero led all players with 14 kills in the contest, while Cordero and Alondra Maldonado added 10 winners each.
Otero recorded a double-double by tying Cruz for match-high honors with 17 digs. Malgorzata Andersohn topped all players with 24 assists and contributed 14 digs, while Cordero also recorded 10 digs and three aces.
The Hornets held a 70-49 edge in digs in the match.
The Delaware State / Howard MEAC Tournament championship match will air live on ESPNU  / ESPN3.