Last weekend Coastal Carolina traveled to Wake Forest for the first tournament of the season.

The opening match for the lady Chants was at 7:00 p.m. Friday evening against Campbell University. Coastal came out strong and never looked back. The match lasted for one hour and fifteen minutes as Coastal won 3 - 0 (6,8,6). Five players for Coastal had a kill percentage of more than .500 and the entire team had a hitting percentage of .341. Emma Prowse (11 kills, 421 hit %) and Autumn Staub (6 kills, 455 hit %) led the team offensively from the middle. This was in part due to strong passing by the entire team (only two passing errors). On the outside Roberta Croteau (9 kills), Amy Bambenek and setter Colette Pawlyk also put in solid performances.

Saturday morning Coastal returned to play the home team - Wake Forest. In a match that lasted 2 hours, Coastal won 3 - 1 (8,-9,8,10). Once again the middle blockers led the team in hitting percentage behind Autumn Staub's 15 kills. On the outside Roberta Croteau had 12 kills. Two freshman played a big role on defense with Alicia Pulchinski pulling up 15 balls and Michelle Shepherd adding 4 (along with 2 blocks).

Coastal met Appalachian State on Saturday night in a match that turned out to be a battle for the championship. Coastal won 3 - 1 (7,-13,12,5). "The big difference in this match was blocking and defense", said coach Lee. On the net the lady Chants were led by the blocking of Emma Prowse (4 solo blocks and 2 assists), Autumn Staub (2 solo, 2 assist), and Wendy Kutz (2 solo, 1 assist). Defensively Amy Bambenek had 23 digs while Colette Pawlyk and Roberta Croteau who each had 21. On offense the team was led by Roberta Croteau (16 kills), Autumn Staub (15 kills), Emma Prowse (12 kills) and a nice solid performance by Wendy Kutz.

Roberta Croteau and Emma Prowse led all players in voting as they made the all tournament team. Although Autumn Staub did not make the all tournament team it should be noted that she led Coastal in hitting percentage in all three matches. "I was very pleased with the outcome. I came in expecting us to win this tournament if we played well as a team. There are a number of areas where we need to make corrections but we came together very well as a team.", Coach Lee.

TEAM HIGHS (Tournament): Service Aces - Amy Bambenek 7; Kills - Roberta Croteau 36; Blocks - Emma Prowse 14; Digs - Amy Bambenek 44