JONESBORO, Ark. - Coastal Carolina volleyball outside hitter Anett Nemeth had a career-high 30 kills and 11-dig double-double on Saturday night in the 3-1 victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves to improve their overall record to 16-2 and 6-0 in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Chanticleers took set one by the score of 25-18 as they held the Red Wolves offensive attack to a .105 (10-of-38) hitting percentage. Coastal's offense cruised through the set as they hit .400 (16-of-35) on freshman setter Brigitta Petrenko's 15 assists and Nemeth's set-high eight kills.
In set two, Arkansas State jumped out to an 18-8 lead on CCU as they won a stretch of nine of 10 points. The Red Wolves took the set 25-17 and held the Chanticleer hitters to a .088 (11-of-34) hitting percentage. A-State had nine team kills and three service aces, including two by Malgorzata Anderson.
With the match tied up at one set apiece, ASU and CCU were knotted up in set three by the score of 4-4 before Nemeth helped give the Chants a lead of four points at 8-4. The Pecel, Hungary native had a kill and two aces during the four-point rally as the Arkansas State bench called for a timeout. The Wolves would come out of their timeout to pick up a point off a kill from Macey Putt, but the Chanticleers strung together three points and extended their lead to 11-5 with a service ace and a kill by junior Mariia Levanova followed by another kill by junior Kyla Manning. That is the closest the set would be for the Red Wolves as Coastal Carolina rolled to a 10-point victory, 25-15.
CCU hit an impressive .609 (15-of-23) in set three as Nemeth and Levanova each had five kills apiece.
Coastal Carolina jumped out to a 6-2 lead early in set four as Nemeth converted on her first three kills of the set.
The Red Wolves would pull even later in set four by the score of 15-15, but yet again Coastal's offensive attack would help them pull away with three consecutive points (19-16) with the help from a kill and a block by Manning and a service ace by Petrenko.
Nemeth would not let the Chanticleer team lose set four as she finished the match as she connected on four kills of CCU's final five points to earn the 25-20 set win. The outside hitter finished the set with 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .588 (12-of-17).
For Coastal, Petrenko had a career-high 53 assists and Manning pitched in with 13 kills.
Timber Terrell led the Red Wolves attack with 16 kills while setter Julianna Cramer had 19 assists.
The Chanticleers return to action on Wednesday night as they play at home at the HTC Center versus the Appalachian State Mountaineers. The first serve is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
For complete coverage of CCU volleyball, follow the Chanticleers on social media at @CoastalVball (twitter), @GoCCUSports (Instagram), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (facebook) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.
