CONWAY, S.C - The Coastal Carolina volleyball team suffered their first conference loss of the season on Friday night in front of 1,251 at The HTC Center in four sets (23-25, 29-27, 23-25, 18-25) to the Sun Belt West leader Texas State. CCU sophomore Anett Nemeth had a match-high 26 kills but it wasn't enough as Coastal falls to 8-1 in conference play and 18-3 overall. 
 
The loss snapped the Chants winning streak at eight straight games.
 
In the first set, Coastal jumped out to a quick 4-2 advantage that included three offensive errors by the Bobcats and a service ace by freshman setter Brigitta Petrenko. Texas State would rally off four consecutive points with the help of back-to-back kills by Janell Fitzgerald to take a 6-4 lead over CCU.
 
The Chanticleers hung around in set one as they were able to tie it at 11 points all, but the Bobcats were able to take the advantage off a 3-0 rally to extend their lead to 14-11. Two more times in the first set, CCU was able to even the score, but it was the Coastal serve that struggled as they committed seven service errors in the 25-23 loss.
 
Set two started much like the first as both teams would trade points that included 13 ties, but the Bobcats used a three-point run to jump out to a seemingly insurmountable lead of 15-12. The Chanticleers went to their offensive leaders, junior Kyla Manning and Nemeth to guide them to a 29-27 set two-win as they combined for 10 kills over the final 17 Chanticleer points.
  
Coastal Carolina jumped out to a 9-5 lead in set three, but for the third straight set, Texas State would take the lead, but this time they wouldn't give it back. The Bobcats used six runs of two and three points to pull out in front and stay in front of the Chanticleers for the 25-23 victory.
 
After the close first three sets of the evening, CCU ran out of gas in the final set as the Chants went on to lose 25-18. The Bobcats' Lauren Teske had a set-high eight putaways with a hitting percentage of .727. Overall, Texas State hit .429 (17-of-28) compared to the Chanticleers .219 (10-of-28).
 
Both teams struggled at the service line on the night, committing 13 errors each. Coming into tonight's match, the Chants relied on their serving game to put away their competition as they were ranked first in the country with 2.24 aces per set. Individually, Brigitta Petrenko ranked seventh in the nation with .58 per set but struggled to find her rhythm on Friday night as she was only able to connect on just two service aces on the evening.

There were 25 lead changes and 25 ties in the match.
 
Nemeth and Manning were the only two Chanticleers with double-digit kills on the night. Manning had seven kills in set two and 10 overall for the match.
 
The Bobcats had four players on the night with 10 or more kills. Janell Fitzgerald had a team-high 17 kills on a .500 hitting percentage while teammate Emily Dewalt had a match-high 50 assists.
 
Petrenko had 49 assists while CCU libero Lina Perugini led all players with 14 digs.
 
The Chanticleers will return to action this Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET as they host UT Arlington at The HTC Center.

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.