ATHENS, GA. – On Friday night, the Coastal Carolina volleyball team dropped their opening match of the season to the Georgia Bulldogs in five sets, 26-24, 20-25, 25-23, 20-25, 12-15. Freshman Anett Nemeth led the Chants in the match with 18 kills while senior setter Sara Boothe had 39 assists.
 
In set one, the Chanticleers got out to early 3-1 lead, but the Bulldogs took control of the middle part of the set as they took the lead behind T'ara Ceasar and Rachel Ritchie's four kills apiece.  With Coastal down by their largest margin of six points at 21-15, sophomore Kyla Manning helped rally her team back to a 26-24 win with seven kills while hitting .462.
 
Coastal came out in set two riding the momentum they used to win the previous to take the advantage and led until the Bulldogs tied it 17-17.  Georgia went onto win set three 25-20 as Ceasar and Ritchie again led set with five put aways.
 
Almost a mirror of what happened in set two, the Chants got off to a slow start in set three but were able to fight back to tie the score 19-19. Freshman Reka Orsi Toth had big swings in the final six points as she came up with three kills to push the Chants the past the Dawgs in the set to onto win, 25-23. Nemeth had seven of her 18 kills in the set as she hit 7-for-10 for .700 hitting percentage.
 
After Georgia ran away with set four, 25-20, Coastal came out in set five to take the lead. Nemeth had two more kills to give her team an 8-6 lead before the teams switched sides. Once played resumed, the Bulldogs used the only two kills in the set from Majesti Bass to tie the score and go on to win the set 15-13.
 
The Dawgs out hit the Chanticleers in the final two sets, .231 to .077 and .306 to .067 respectively.
 
Manning on the night had a 17 kills for Coastal Carolina. Libero Carla Cahill led the match with 19 digs, while Manning added ten and senior Sydney Alvis tallied 11.
 
For Georgia, Cesar led the match with 21 kills and setter Meghan Mitchell led with 47 assists.
Coastal will have a short turn around as they will continue in Athens on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. versus Illinois State and then will play later in the day at 5 p.m. against Furman.

For complete coverage of CCU volleyball, follow the Chanticleers on social media at @CoastalVball (twitter), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) and facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (facebook) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.