Final Stats

ROCK HILL, S.C. - The Coastal Carolina volleyball team began its Big South Conference schedule on Friday night with a straight-sets (25-21, 25-20, 25-19) win over Winthrop at the Eagles' Coliseum.

Coastal's (9-4, 1-0) three-set sweep was its sixth of the season, and drops Winthrop to 4-11, 0-1.

Eszter Nagy led Coastal with 11 kills on 18 swings with just one error for a .556 hitting percentage. The senior middle blocker also added four blocks ââ'¬" a match high ââ'¬" to lead all players with 13.5 points.

Leah Hardeman and Natasa Savovic had nearly identical nights as each provided eight kills, nine digs and a block for the Chants.

Sara Boothe served as Coastal's primary setter and tallied 20 assists to lead the Chants. Aleksandra Djuric spelled Boothe for periods of the night, resulting in 13 assists and five digs for the sophomore.

As a team the Chanticleers finished with a .257 hitting percentage, including a first-set percentage of .343. Winthrop hit .110 for the match, and was held below .100 for the final two sets.

The first set saw Coastal put down 14 kills, including five from Nagy, as the Chanticleers broke away from the Eagles midway through the set with a 9-4 run. Winthrop's timeout with Coastal leading 19-14 helped the Eagles to regain some ground as they pulled to within three points of the Chants late in the set, but kills from Savovic and Nagy closed the opening frame and gave Coastal a 1-0 match lead.

The Eagles led in the early going of the second set, but a kill from Lian Bernett evened the score at 12 a side. Coastal then put together a 6-2 run on the serves of Hardeman and Cahill to build a four-point lead and force Winthrop into its first timeout of the set. Coastal held at least a three-point advantage for the remainder of the game, thanks in part to several errors from the Eagles. A service error from Mallay McFadden was later followed by consecutive bad sets from Madilyn McCarty, and the set ended on back-to-back attack errors by Lourdes Rosario.

Winthrop appeared to turn the match around in the beginning of the third set as the Eagles jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead, forcing Jozsef Forman to use both of Coastal's timeouts. The Chants surrendered the first point coming out of the second timeout, but took the next eight points on the serve of Alise Petersone to even the set at 10-10. Petersone accounted for two service aces during that stretch.

The Chants grabbed the set lead for good when an attack error from Annelies Dokter put Coastal in front 12-11. CCU closed the match hitting .226 in the final set while putting down 12 kills and registering 13 digs.

Coastal continues its two-match road swing to begin conference play on Saturday as the Chanticleers head to Presbyterian for a 7 p.m. match.