CONWAY – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team overcame a sluggish start Sunday to defeat Little Rock in five sets (23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12) at the HTC Center.
The Chants (5-7, 4-0 SBC) remain unbeaten in first place in the Sun Belt East Division following Sunday's win. Little Rock falls to 11-8, 3-3 with the loss.
Coastal's third five-set match of the season featured 42 ties and 20 lead changes. The Chants battled through 11 Little Rock blocks and 81 Trojan digs to pull out the win.
Freshman
Anett Nemeth led the charge with an 18 kill, 19 assist, 18 dig triple-double while hitting .295.
Kyla Manning added 21 kills and 10 digs with a .220 hitting percentage.
Sydney Alvis led all players with 24 digs, and
Kaylah House paced the Chants with three blocks. The Chants also received great production from freshman
Ann-Katrine Hakansson, who provided 27 assists off the bench in her first match as a 5-1 setter.
Trailing 1-0 in the match, Coastal came from behind to win the second set in extra points. With Little Rock leading 22-21 in the frame, Coastal strung together a 5-2 run to win 26-24 and even the match 1-1. The Chants hit .286 in the set, receiving five kills from Nemeth and four from Manning.
Coastal took the third set 25-23 to lead the match 2-1. The Chanticleer offense, led by Manning's six kills, fought through the five blocks and 12 digs of Little Rock. Coastal ended the set on an 8-2 run, bouncing back nicely from an earlier stretch of the set where Little Rock won seven straight points.
Little Rock worked to a 7-3 lead to open the fourth set, and used a .344 hitting percentage to maintain its advantage for the remainder of the set.
The Trojans also led early in the fifth set before Coastal responded with five straight points to go ahead 9-6. The run included three Little Rock errors and a pair of service aces by Alvis. Little Rock never came back from its multiple mistakes, and the Chants claimed the final game 15-12.
In addition to Coastal winning its 18th consecutive match against a Sun Belt opponent, the Chants are unbeaten in their last nine home matches at the HTC Center.
Coastal will look to replicate its success on the road as the Chants face their first away conference test on Tuesday at Georgia State. The match, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., was previously postponed during Hurricane Florence.
