COLUMBIA, S.C. – Morehouse College snapped a 54-match losing streak and won its first men's volleyball match in school history with a 3-2 victory over Benedict College, spoiling the Tigers' senior day on Friday night in the Benjamin E. Mays HRC Arena.
 
Morehouse won the match 25-16, 12-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-13 to improve to 1-17 overall and 1-9 in the SIAC. Benedict falls to 3-15 overall and 2-7 in the SIAC.
 
Zion Beckford had 11 kills, and Camron Petillo added 10 kills. De'Andrae Taylor had eight kills and a career-high 7.5 blocks. Jaiden Romes-Crawley had 41 assists.
 
Benedict won the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead. Morehouse jumped out to an early 13-3 lead in the fourth set, but Benedict rallied to tie the set at 16. Morehouse pulled ahead 21-17, but the Tigers scored three straight points to cut the lead to 21-20. After trading points, Morehouse closed out the set with the final three points.
 
In the deciding fifth set, Benedict had a 10-8 lead before Morehouse scored four points in a row for a 12-10 lead. Benedict tied the score on back-to-back kills by Taylor. Two Benedict attack errors gave Morehouse a 14-12 lead, but Taylor added another kill to make it 14-13. Morehouse scored the match-winning point on a kill.
 
Benedict honored two seniors – libero Clint Forbes and Malachi Surney.
 
Benedict closes out the regular season on Sunday at 3 p.m. when they host Fort Valley State in the Benjamin E. Mays HRC Arena.