Mariah Russell (St Louis Mo./Maplewood Richmond Heights) broke Lincoln University's single season record for kills as the women's volleyball team swept Bowie State University 3-0 Saturday afternoon at Manuel Rivero Gym.

Lincoln took the match with set scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-6.  The Lions improve to 7-22 overall and finish the regular season with a 5-11 conference record, and finished in fourth place in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) north division.  Bowie finishes their season at 3-22 overall and 1-15 in CIAA.   Prior to the match, the Lions honored their lone senior on the squad, setter Shanna King (Newark, NJ/University High School) for all her contributions to the team's success over the past four seasons.

Russell entered the game needing just four kills to break the mark of 232 held by Donneisha Smith, set back in 2007. After three kills in the first set, Russell led off the second set with a kill for her 233^rd of the season.  The junior outside hitter added two more to finish the match with six and 235 for the season.

The single season kills mark is the second LU volleyball season mark to fall in the month of November.  Early last week, King broke the school's single season assist mark and with 27 in the today's match now has 499 for the season.  King also holds the school's career assist mark with 1,365.

Freshman Atarah Lindsey (Detroit, Mich./Romulus High School) led all players with 17 kills, giving her 200 for the season.  She is just the third player behind Russell and the aforementioned Smith to record 200 kills in a single season.  Lindsey also had eight digs, breaking the 300-dig plateau for the season, the third player in program history to do so.

Tierra Russaw (Westland, Mich./Summit Academy) had 19 digs to lead all players while Russell chipped in 11.  Corian Campbell (Newark, NJ/No. 13th HS) had two blocks and King added three aces.

Lincoln never trailed in the opening set, jumping out to an 11-4 lead and never looking back.    Two straight aces from King later in the set gave the Lions a double-digit advantage 20-10.  The Bulldogs fought back with an 8-4 run before a kill from King sealed the set at 25-18.

The second set was much closer as with Lincoln leading in the early going.  A 5-0 rally by Bowie State gave the Bulldogs their only lead of the match at 12-10.  LU scored the next three points to retake the lead at 13-12 and later produced a 7-0 run to pull away 21-14.  The final points were similar to the first set as the Bulldogs attempted a comeback.  King again closed the set out with a kill, giving the Lions a 25-19 win.

The final set was all Lincoln as 9-1 run broke a 2-2 tie and put the match firmly in their hands at 11-3.  After a BSU kill made the score 11-4, Russaw took over the serving duties and the Lions produced 11 straight points to lead 22-4.  Five volleys later Lincoln clinched the match, winning the set 25-6.

Breona Garrison led BSU with six kills and nine digs.  Cheyenne Salter had 13 assists and eight digs.

Next up for the Lions will be the opening round of the CIAA Volleyball Tournament Championship, held at Virginia State University starting on November 18, 2016.