WASHINGTON, D.C. – Howard maintained its perfect record in conference play and limited the Norfolk State volleyball team to just one more kill than it had errors in a 3-0 victory over the Spartans on Friday night at Burr Gymnasium.
 
Despite having just five fewer errors, the Bison still hit .237 compared to a .011 clip for NSU. Howard ran its overall record to 20-5 and its MEAC record to 9-0 after a 25-21, 25-13 and 25-20 sweep over Norfolk State.
 
The Spartans fell to 6-17 overall and 4-5 in the league. NSU suffered the setback despite having four fewer service errors, exactly the same amount of digs as Howard (40) and a 7-6 edge in blocks.
 
Howard's Khaila Donaldson, the league's leading hitter, tallied 14 kills with seven digs. The Bison finished with 38 kills compared to 21 for the Spartans.
 
NSU played its best ball in the first set, momentarily taking the lead at 8-7 after a service ace from senior Jessica Johnson capped a 5-1 run. The Bison took the lead back but coughed it up again after a short run by NSU that ended on a block by senior Sydney Dailey and sophomore Lexi Brown.
 
Howard came right back with a 5-1 run, and despite two kills from Johnson getting the Spartans to within one late in the set, the Bison won the last three points to gain the early lead in the match.
 
The second set did not go the way of the Spartans, who quickly fell behind by a 12-2 score and could only muster a short 4-1 run later in the stanza.
 
Howard was poised to cruise in the third set as well after a 9-3 run pushed its lead to six. The Spartans later countered by scoring five straight to cut the deficit to 16-15, but a late 8-3 run by the Bison helped to eventually close out the five-point win.
 
Johnson had seven kills to lead NSU, while Brown hit the best of any Spartan hitter and tallied five kills. Juniors Melvina Brown and Tori Tulensru led all players with 12 digs each, and Dailey had four blocks. Junior Hope Forsythe contributed seven digs and seven assists as well.
 
NSU will host the Bison in its next match, this one in Norfolk on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Gill Gymnasium.