Conway, S.C. - In front of a crowd of 1,757, the largest ever to watch a volleyball match at The HTC Center, the Coastal Carolina volleyball team kept a stronghold of first-place in the Sun Belt East as they were victorious by the score of 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21) over Appalachian State on Wednesday night.
 
Sophomore Anett Nemeth had 20 kills to lead the Chants past the Mountaineers and remain undefeated (7-0) in conference play and improve to 17-2 overall on the season.
 
The Mountaineers were able to steal the first set of the night by the score of 25-21 as they held the Chants to a .067 hitting percentage while being able to hit .318 (12-of-22) as a team. Emma Longley led App State in the first frame with five kills on nine attempts. The App State defense had Coastal's number as they tallied four blocks with Anna Kincaid pitching in with two blocks.
 
The Chanticleers jumped out early in set two as they were sparked by back-to-back blocks by junior Kyla Manning and junior Christina Nance. After Nemeth picked up her first kill of the set, Manning earned her second block as it extended her team's lead to 5-0. Coastal would jump out to a 7-1 lead, their largest of the set, as they went on to tie up the match at one set all with the 25-23 win.
 
The reigning Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week, Nemeth played strong down the stretch as she had six of her eight set two kills over CCU's final 10 points.
 
The two teams reversed their roles in the second frame, as Coastal Carolina posted a hitting percentage of .303 (14-of-33). The Chanticleer duo of Manning and Ilse Sinnige held the Appalachian State attack to a subpar hitting percentage (.067) while the duo had two solo blocks.
 
In set three, neither squad was able to find the rhythm of their offensive attack. Coastal won the edge at the net as Sinnige added two more of her match-high six blocks to help the Chants to the 25-21 win.
 
With freshman Brigitta Petrenko's two service aces and Manning's three kills, Coastal Carolina cruised early in set four as they jumped out to a 15-3 advantage.
 
Appalachian State would call a timeout and regroup. The Mountaineers came out of the break and reeled off nine unanswered points with the help of four Chanticleer errors to shrink Coastal's lead to three at 15-12.
 
With the score at 19-17 in set four, both teams traded points before CCU went back to their all-conference performer Nemeth to close out set four and go on to win by the score of 25-21.
 
Petrenko, along with her counterpart Sam Bickley, each had 33 assists to lead their teams on the night.
 
Manning was the only other CCU player in double-digit kills as she tallied 11.
 
The Mountaineers had two players with double-digit dig nights in Grace Kinsch (11) and Emma Reilley (10).
 
Coastal and App State will meet again on Friday night in Boone, N.C. with the first serve set for 6:30 p.m.
 
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.