Senior outside hitter Whitney Johnson tallied a match-high 14 kills as Maryland Eastern Shore defeated Hampton, 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-13),in front of 2,131 at the William P. Hytche Athletic Center Friday.

UMES recorded a season-high hitting percentage of .444 while committing just six attack errors to improve to 14-6 (3-0 MEAC). The Hawks held the Lady Pirates to .143 from the floor as Hampton dropped its fourth of six matches, falling to 6-14 overall and 1-2 in conference play.

Senior Caylin Woodward registered seven kills and a match-best nine digs. Redshirt junior Samantha Chukwura chipped in with six kills and freshman Bella Jade Romero ran the Hawks' offense with 25 of the team's 33 assists.

UMES' compiled its best single-game hitting percentage of the season breaking a mark of .413 set Sept. 12 against La Salle in the Delaware State Invitational.

The Lady Hawks started slow in the first game, trailing by one at 19-18 when Hampton called the first time out of the night. Woodward knotted the game with a kill on the next point and ran off six of the next 10 points to go up, 1-0.

UMES made just one error in the second game, building a 15-5 lead before the Lady Pirates attempted to stem the tide with a timeout. The lead grew to 20-5 on three Hampton attack errors and kills from Johnson and sophomore Christine Edwards. Two more Johnson kills and one from Woodward closed out the game for UMES, giving the Hawks a commanding two-game advantage.

The third game was much of the same as UMES rallied after losing the first three points. A Johnson ace - one of the team's 11 for the match - gave the Hawks a 17-10 edge prior to a Hampton timeout. The Hawks cruised the rest of the way to victory, surrendering just three more points,

For Hampton, Lina Cordoba tallied a team-high eight kills while Ivana Saput had five digs. Lihi Elkayam had 19 of the Lady Pirates 21 assists. Elkayam and Mianna Armstrong collected the team's two service aces.

The Lady Hawks are back in action at Coppin State Sunday at 7 p.m.