Box Score ORANGEBURG, S.C. – The South Carolina State women's volleyball team suffered a tough 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-20) loss to Florida A&M in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Friday night at Dukes Gymnasium.
 
The Lady Rattlers (1-13, 1-0 MEAC) picked up their first win of the season, while the Lady Bulldogs fell to 0-9 overall and 0-1 in MEAC play.
 
All three sets were very competitive, making the match exciting from beginning to end. In the first set, FAMU took a convincing 10-1 lead to start, and quickly went up 14-3. But after a series of Lady Rattler miscues and Lady Bulldog kills, SC State got within three points (20-17). FAMU went on a 5-3 run to take the set.
 
Set 2 started out with FAMU scoring the first five points. After a Lady Bulldog timeout, freshman Brianna Dafney had a big kill to put SC State on the board. Midway through the set, the Lady Bulldogs got within one, 16-15, after a FAMU attack error. SC State went on a 5-4 run to tie the set at 20-all, forcing FAMU to take a time out. The Lady Rattlers regrouped and took the set 25-22.
 
The final set started out with SC State taking a 2-0 lead. The set was very competitive early on with six ties and six lead changes in the first part of the set. FAMU broke an 8-all tie on a kill by Ginna Lopez and outscored SC State 17-12 the rest of the way to take the set and the match.
 
Senior Marissa Lawrence had a match-high 11 kills for SC State. Dafney had 10 kills and six digs, while sophomores Kirby Anderson and Ashante Finnie had 11 and 10 digs, respectively. Senior Melanie Williams had a double-double of 22 assists and 10 digs.
 
The Lady Bulldogs return to action on Sunday at 2 p.m. when they host Bethune-Cookman.