BOONE, N.C. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team suffered a 3-0 (19-25, 22-25, 14-25) loss at Appalachian State Friday evening in the Mountaineers' Holmes Center.
The Chants fall to 6-10 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt after suffering their third consecutive loss to a conference opponent. App State improves to 14-7, 6-3 to pull one match ahead of Coastal in the Sun Belt East Division. The two schools meet again on Sunday as the Chants host their annual Dig Pink game at the HTC Center. Opening serve is set for 12:30 p.m.
Coastal's
Anett Nemeth recorded double-digit kills for the ninth straight match on Friday, but it was not enough to lead the Chants past the Mountaineers. The freshman closed the match with 11 kills, and was the only Coastal player to finish in double figures in the category.
Kyla Manning landed eight kills while hitting .273,
Sara Boothe dished out 29 assists and
Sydney Alvis led Coastal with 11 digs.
App's Emma Longley had a match-leading 12 kills, while Kara Spicer and Lexi Kohut each finished with 11. The Mountaineers hit .237 as a team, while limiting Coastal to hitting .202. App held a 43-37 advantage in kills, and was ahead in blocks, 7-4, as well.
App jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the match and remained ahead for the entirety of the first set. The Mountaineers led by as many as nine points, 20-11, before Coastal responded with 8-2 run to cut the deficit to three. Those proved to be Coastal's last points of the set, however, as App finished the game with three straight points to take a 1-0 match lead.
Coastal nearly evened the match in the second set, but a late surge from App State pushed the Mountaineers past the Chants and into a 2-0 match lead. Coastal led the middle frame 22-20 and forced App into a timeout following a kill from
Ani Bozdeva. Coming out the break a Longley kill cut the margin to a single point, and three straight Coastal errors swung the lead in App's favor, 24-22. The Mountaineers finished off the set with another kill by Longley.
App got off to a hot start in the final set, and used an early 11-2 run to build a lead that proved too large for Coastal to overcome. The Mountaineers .281 hitting percentage in the third was their highest of the match, and they received a combined 10 kills from Longley, Spicer and Kohut.
