MOBILE, Ala. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team swept South Alabama in three sets (25-16, 28-26, 25-20) on Friday evening to extend its current winning streak to six matches.
Coastal's (12-11, 11-4 SBC) defense had yet another great outing, recording 16 blocks to tie its season high. The total was also the most among all Sun Belt teams in three-set matches this season, and marked the fourth time in the last five matches that the Chants reached double digits in rejections.
South Alabama (13-15, 7-8 SBC) was held to hitting .008 as a team, and only one Jaguar player broke single digits in kills.
A trio of Chants had six blocks, including
Anett Nemeth,
Dora Lulic and
Kaylah House.
Kyla Manning added four blocks, and
Ani Bozdeva factored into three.
The Chants also performed well offensively, with two players reaching double digits in kills and four players hitting over .250 for the match.
Nemeth added to her great all-around night with 12 kills at a .375 clip, and dished out 14 assists for her 12th double-double of the season. Manning followed with 11 kills while hitting .267, and narrowly missed out on a double-double as the sophomore added nine kills.
Lulic and House accompanied their six blocks with five and four kills, respectively, and each player posted hitting percentages over .400.
Ann-Katrine Hakansson led the Chants with 20 assists, and
Sydney Alvis had a match-leading 19 digs.
Coastal dominated the back end of the first set, closing out the frame with an 11-1 run. Manning led the charge with four kills and a solo block over that span, and Hakansson landed an ace as she served the Chants to set's final eight points.
Coastal won the first three points to begin the second, which ended up being the largest lead of the set. Overall the set included 14 ties and six lead changes as neither side managed to gain a sizeable advantage. Coastal held the first set point, but South Alabama won the following two points to lead 25-24. A Nemeth kill evened the score and kept the Chants in the match, but a Coastal ball-handling error in the next series gave USA its second set point. Once again it was Nemeth that landed a kill to tie the set. House followed with another kill, and a USA attack error gave the set to the Chants, 28-26.
South Alabama won five straight points early in the third set, but Coastal managed to overcome the deficit using a 4-0 run of its own to take a 14-12 lead. The Chants then won four straight points for the second time in the set to take a 18-14 lead and force a USA timeout. Coastal never surrendered that lead as it closed out the final set by a five-point margin.
Coastal closes out the regular season on Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. (ET) match at Troy. The Chants swept the Trojans in the first meeting this season on Oct. 26.
