COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The UMBC volleyball team won its third straight match on Friday, defeating Howard, 3-0, in the first day of the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Terrapin Invitational. With the win, the Retrievers improve to 5-6, while the Bison fell to 1-13.

Both teams had the same amount of blocks (6) and service aces (4), but the difference was hitting as the Retrievers had their most efficient hitting performance of the season, outhitting the Bison .351 to .054.

"Our outside's played outstanding today," head coach Ian Blanchard said, "and after making some serving mistakes in the first set, we really buckled down the rest of the match and put a lot of pressure on them."

Freshman Naomi Bush (Fruitport, Mich./Fruitport) led the Retrievers with a season-high 15 kills and hit .500 with only one error, while junior Sabrina Hoeks (Olympia, Wash./AG West Black Hills) hit .600 with seven kills against one error.

"I was really happy for Naomi that she had a great game coming back from an ankle sprain," the coach said.

Sophomore Iman Kennedy (Charlotte, N.C./Independence) continued her solid play, hitting .400 with nine kills and four assisted blocks, while sophomore Alyssa Lang (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) hit .346 with 12 kills and seven digs.

The Retrievers return to action tomorrow when they face VCU at 11 p.m. and host Maryland at 7 p.m.