BALTIMORE – Bethune-Cookman meets host Coppin State in the opening round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament Friday morning at 10 a.m. in the CSU Physical Education Complex.

The Lady Cats (11-19) earned the MEAC South Division's second seed while the Eagles (13-13) finished third in the MEAC North.

The winner of Friday's match advances to the semifinals on Saturday, and will face the Hampton-North Carolina Central winner at noon. Sunday's championship match is scheduled for noon and will air live on ESPN3 with a rebroadcast slated for 9 p.m. that evening on ESPNU.

The teams met in last year's tournament, with Coppin State taking a 3-0 victory.

B-CU IN THE MEAC: The Lady Cats have fallen in the quarterfinals the past two seasons after making the semifinals in 2011, Isaac Raphael's first season at B-CU. The Lady Cats have never appeared in the championship match … B-CU leads the all-time series with Coppin State 15-4, but three of those four losses have been in the tournament.

B-CU UPDATE: The Nov. 9 victory over Florida A&M gave the Lady Cats their best-ever conference record percentage-wise (8-2, .800) in program history … Since that 2011 tournament victory, a 3-2 decision over Morgan State, Bethune-Cookman has dropped six straight to MEAC North teams … Delicia Pierre and Hazel Ortiz-Rosado garnered third-team selections on the MEAC All-Conference team, giving the Lady Cats two representatives since Krysta Gardner and Janeen Davis were recognized in 2011 … Pierre has had 61 kills and 32 digs the last four matches … Freshman Rakaya Neely has posted 33 kills in the final two matches and at least five blocks the past four … Ortiz-Rosado has registered at least two service aces  in eight of the final nine matches to cement her lead in that stat category … Normarie Rolon is within 35 digs of Jennifer Jimenez' season record of 395 while Neely is five away from Sharifa Carr's 2001 school record total of 103 blocks… Lauren Turner has had 14 kills, nine digs and five blocks.

NINE MAKE MEAC ALL-ACADEMIC: Nine B-CU players were named to the MEAC Volleyball All-Academic team Thursday.  The MEAC recognizes student-athletes with a 3.0 or better cumulative grade point average, including sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well as transfer student-athletes, who have been in residence at the institution for at least one year. B-CU's All-Academic selections were Jill Arlaud, Phylecia Armstrong,Destiny Hudson,Delicia Pierre,Rhea Simon,Jedda Stewart,Jorra Stewart,  Alexas Thomas and Lauren Turner.

CSU UPDATE:  The Eagles reached double-figures win for the third consecutive year. Gabrielle Otero (1,638 digs), Ariel Richard (1,209 kills and 1,377.0 points), Chelsee Sauni (2,903 assists) and Kandace Thomas (.282 hitting percentage) each set career records this year.

WHERE WE RANK:

 CAREER STATS

WEEKEND COVERAGE: Follow our official feeds (@BCUathletics and @BCUvolleyball) for updates.

TOURNAMENT COVERAGE: Live stats will be available at www.meacsports.com. Follow our official twitter feeds (@bcuvolleyball and @bcuathletics) for updates.