Junior Jennifer Hampton (Lake Forest, Calif./El Toro) tallied a team-high 51 assists to become Coastal's All-Time Assist Leader and outside hitter Katherine Jensen (Vancouver, British Columbia/Sentinel Secondary (Ole Miss)) led the strong effort with a team-highs of 17 kills and a match-high 23 digs but the Coastal Carolina volleyball team (13-8, 4-4 Big South) took a tough five game loss (26-30, 30-27, 21-30, 30-28, 12-15) against the first place team in the conference, Winthrop University (20-2, 8-0 Big South) on Friday evening at Kimbel Arena.

The first game was a back and forth game which feature six lead changes and 13 ties. Coastal briefly held a 21-20 lead on a kill by junior Krista Kimble (Lake Forest, Calif./Temecula Valley), before Winthrop’s Taryn Surbaugh recorded four kills, including the game winner, to give the Eagles the victory.

The second game was another back and fourth game with nine ties and three lead changes. Coastal finally took control for good at 16-15, but even then that lead would grow to no more than four points as both teams battled. Coastal survived for 30-27 victory to tie the game at one a piece.

The third game was all Winthrop as the Eagles took control of this one and at one point owned a 10 point lead on the way to the nine point 30-21 victory.

CCU would play from behind for most of game four. CCU finally took its first lead of the game at 26-25. It was then that Coastal was able to gain the upper hand on a kill and block by sophomore Ashley Scheible (Westerville, Ohio/North) on consecutive plays. This allowed the Lady Chanticleers to escape with a 30-28 victory and tie the games up at two each setting up a deciding fifth game.

The fifth game followed the same drama as the first four with six tie scores and four lead changes as neither team was really able to open things up. Finally, Winthrop’s junior Mary Hock was able to register two kills in three plays to give Winthrop 14-12 lead on its way to a 15-12 game and match victory.

Hampton's team-high 51 assists gave her 3654 career set assists, breaking former Chant Colette Pawlyk's career mark of 3650. Jensen's 17 kills allowed her to move into ninth place all-time on the Chanticleers kill list with 797 career kills. Other CCU standouts besides Hampton and Jensen included sophomore Alicia Meyers (Temecula, Calif./Temecula Valley), who had 15 kills and 11 digs. Schieble had 10 kills to give the Chants its third and final player with double figure kill totals. Sophomore Kristin Rinne (Fountain Hills, Ariz./Fountain Hills) tallied 14 digs and junior Kali Banghart (Woodbridge, Va./C.D. Hylton) also reached double figures with 10 digs. Withrop would have four players with double-figure kills totals led by Hock’s game-high 18. Others to reach the mark include sophomore Taryn Surbaugh who had 15, freshman Shannon Sitzmann tallied 14 with Tori Grafeman rounding out the list with 13. Setter Emily Heckl, the Big South assist leader, had a match-high 59 assists. Five Eagles had double-figure digs totals, led by Sara Billingsley’s 21.

For the match, the Lady Chanticleers were outhit by the Eagles 71-65 in kills and .184 - .149 in hitting percentage. Winthrop also had an amazing 20 blocks led by Sitzmann’s 12.

CCU will next take the court on Saturday afternoon as it welcomes in High Point University for a 2 p.m., match at Kimbel Arena. Winthrop will stay on the road to take on Charleston Southern on Saturday evening at 5 p.m.