SAN MARCOS, TEXAS – The No. 2-seed Coastal Carolina Chanticleer volleyball team (25-4) moves onto Sunday's 2019 Sun Belt Volleyball Championship as they knocked off the No. 7-seed UT Arlington Mavericks with a 3-1 (26-24, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19) victory at the Strahan Center.
First Team All-Sun Belt performers, Anett Nemeth, Kyla Manning, and Brigitta Petrenko led CCU to the school's third Sun Belt championship match in the last four years in the four-set win.
In the set one, with the Mavericks ahead by the score of 12-6, the Chanticleers chipped away at the deficit and won 13 of the next 20 points to even the score at 19-19. UTA would retake the lead four times down the stretch, but each time CCU would regroup to tie the score.
In the latter stages of set one, with the score knotted at 23 points apiece, freshman Ilse Sinnige gave the Chants the lead with one of her team's two service aces. The Chanticleers would allow the Mavericks to re-tie the score on one of their set-high nine service errors. The Chant duo of Manning and Petrenko closed out the 26-24 comeback-win with a kill and ace, respectively.
Offensively, Manning and redshirt senior Mariia Levanova led the Chants to the set one-win with six kills apiece.
Much like set one, set two saw the Chanticleers trail early. With their largest deficit of four points (13-9), Coastal began their ascent as they won seven of the next nine points for a 16-15 advantage. During that run, UTA had three consecutive offensive errors and the Chants took advantage as they got kills from Manning and Nemeth.
Still, in the second set, the Mavs got two quick points to retake a brief one-point lead, 17-16. The Chants would thwart UTA's momentum as they finished off the second set, 25-23. In the final seven points of set two, the teal and bronze got kills from Levanova (3) and Nemeth (2).
The Sun Belt Player of the Year, Nemeth had a set-high six kills, but only had a hitting percentage of .062 (6-of-15) with five errors. Levanova added four kills as she hit .375 (4-of-8) with one error.
With the Chanticleers riding wins in the first two sets, they jumped out to a 5-0 lead as they got four kills by four different players (Nemeth, Levanova, Manning, and Christina Nance). UT Arlington would not go away as they fought their way back into the set, eventually taking a 20-19 lead. The two teams would trade lead twice over the final eight points, but the Mavericks would get the best of the Chanticleers to win the final two points for the 25-23 win.
The Mavericks won the hitting battle in set three .333 to .243 and forced the Coastal attack into eight hitting errors.
The Chanticleers would go onto win the fourth and final set by the score of 25-19 with the help of two unanswered runs of 5-0 and 4-0 that led to the largest lead of six points. The 2019 Sun Belt Freshman of the Year, Petrenko, gave the Mavericks another side of her game they haven't seen in the season's earlier match up. The Eger, Hungary native recorded three kills over the last nine points as it was her only kills in the match win.
Nemeth picked up her eighth double-double of the season with a match-high 27 kills and recorded 10 digs.
Petrenko also added her ninth double-double of the season with a match-high 59 assists and a team-high 14 digs.
Manning and Levanova also aided the CCU squad in the victory with double-digit kills with 14 and 12, respectively.
Redshirt sophomore Christina Nance had a big night at the net with a match-high four blocks in the Coastal Carolina win.
Madison Hill and Brook Townsend led UTA offensively with 12 kills apiece, while setter Jessica Standcliff had a team-high 27 assists, and defensively, libero Madelyn St. Germain had match-high 25 digs in the loss.
Coastal Carolina will return to action Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET as they will face the Texas State Bobcats for the 2019 Sun Belt Volleyball Championship.
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.
