Washington, DC (Mar. 28, 2021) --- The Delaware State volleyball team wrapped up its most successful regular season in more than a decade on a high note, coming from behind to defeat Howard 3-2 in a MEAC North contest at HU's Burr Gymnasium. The Hornets dropped the first two sets before storming back to take the last three and win their fourth match in a row to end the regular season.
DSU ends the regular year with an 11-4 overall record (.733), its best win percentage since posting a 23-6 mark (.793) in the early years of the program in 1987. The Hornets' 7-3 MEAC record this season is also the team's best since posting back-to-back 8-2 conference marks in 2009 & 2010.
In today's match, Howard won the opening set 25-20 and pulled ahead 2-0 with a 30-28 marathon victory in set two.
The Hornets began their comeback with a solid 25-10 win in the third set and tied the match at 2-2 on the strength of a 25-21 victory in the fourth set.
In the deciding fifth set, Delaware State scored the first four points, and opened up an 8-1 lead on a kill by Jelena Dukic (sr.).  After Howard pulled to within 10-3, the Hornets scored the final six points, the last on a service ace by Valeria Otero (fr.) to complete the comeback.
In the third set win, DSU posted a .500 hitting percentage, recording 10 kills on 16 attacks. Sydney Lewis (so.) had four kills on four attempts to lead the way in the set.
In the Hornets' fourth set victory, Maria Caratini (fr.) and Alayna Lacy (fr.) collected five digs each to account for 10 of the team's 13 in the set. Caratini had a match-high 17 digs in the contest and has 40 in the last three contests since taking over for injured starter Jasmal Cruz at the libero position. Delaware State had 44 digs in the match, compared to 36 for the Bison.
Otero led all players with 13 kills, while Mayah Ngundam (sr.) tallied 12.
Delaware State swept four matches against Howard this season.
The Hornets will return to action at the MEAC Championship Tournament on Apr. 2-3 in Norfolk, Va. DSU will be the No. 2 North seed in the tourney. The official tournament pairings and match times will be announced by the MEAC.