MOBILE, ALA. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team came from two sets down to retake possession of first-place in the Sun Belt East with a five-set win over the South Alabama Jaguars on Friday night at Jags Gym to move to 9-2 in conference play and 19-4 overall. Reigning Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week Anett Nemeth had a match-high 21 kills to lead the Chanticleers.
 
Just as they have done in the previous two matches, CCU jumped out to an early lead on their competition in set one, this time by the score of 4-1. However, the Jaguars made the necessary adjustments as the home team went on a 13-5 run for their largest lead of the set at 14-9. During the run, USA's Lauren Hartman had three kills and the Jags' team forced the Chants into five errors. 
 
Coastal Carolina made an 8-3 run of its own to tie the first set at 17 all as junior Hannah Emerson and freshman Brigitta Petrenko scored back-to-back block assists. Each team traded four points before the Jags won the last four points of the set to pick up the 25-21 win. Kelley Hartman put away the Chants by herself with two kills, a solo block, and a block assist over the final four points.
 
The Jaguars held the Chanticleers to a hitting a percentage of .237 (11-of-38) and forced four errors in the first set.
 
South Alabama jumped out to a two-set lead with a 25-17 win in set two. The Jags continued to keep the Chanticleer hitters at bay with a .034 hitting percentage in the set as they forced eight more Coastal hitting errors.
 
In set three, the Chants' Nemeth and junior Ani Bozdeva were responsible for eight of their team's first 14 points to take a lead of 14-8. USA reeled off three consecutive points cut the deficit to 14-11, but it wasn't enough as CCU never trailed in set three as the Chants were able to stay live and pull off the 25-20 set win.
 
The Chanticleers came out in set four as they continued what they started in the previous period. CCU never trailed as the visitors jumped out to their largest lead of the match at nine points at 18-9. The Chants went on to win 25-17 as Nemeth and Bozdeza teamed up for five kills apiece. As a team, Coastal hit .484 (17-of-31) with just two attack errors.
 
Coastal Carolina rode the momentum it built over the previous two sets to cruise to a 15-9 set-five win. The Chanticleer team had a hitting percentage of .714 while holding their opponent to .000 percentage. Bozdeva hit a perfect 1.000 for a set-high six kills out of her 18 total on the night.
 
Petrenko had a match-high 47 assists on the night for CCU, while the Jags' Rachel DeMarcus dished out a team-high 36.
 
After a slow start on the evening, the Chanticleers rallied to hit .301 in the match. Junior Kyla Manning pitched in with 12 kills. The Chants were able to hold USA to a hitting percentage of .177 overall as Kelley Hartman had a team-high 15 putaways.
 
Coastal Carolina had 10 team blocks on the night led by Hannah Emerson's three.
 
The Chanticleers return to action on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET as they travel to Troy. First-place is again on the line as the Trojans defeated Appalachian State on Friday night by the score of 3-1 to move to 9-3 in the Sun Belt East play.
 
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.