TOWSON, Md. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team won its first two matches of the Towson Invitational on Friday, defeating Albany 3-1 in the morning before recording a 3-2 come-from-behind win against Towson in the nightcap.
 
The two wins propelled Coastal to a school record as they became the first in program history to start a season 8-0. The Chants will carry their perfect record into the final match of the Towson Invitational against Youngstown State, set for 11 a.m. on Saturday.
 
 Match 1: Coastal 3 – Albany 1
Junior outside hitter Ani Bozdeva landed a career-high 20 kills as she led the Chants to a 25-17, 21-25, 25-16, 25-17 victory over Albany.
 
Bozdeva added a pair of block assists to bring her match-leading points total to 21.0. The junior also hit at a .348 pace and added seven digs.
 
Anett Nemeth put down 17 kills at a .314 clip and also tallied a pair of block assists to finish with 18 points.
 
Coastal limited Albany to a .144 hitting percentage for the match as three Chants finished with double-digit digs. Lina Perugini led the way with 13, followed by 10 each from Kyla Manning and Brigitta Petrenko.
 
Petrenko also tallied a career-high 52 assists and her third double-double of the season.
 
Coastal hit .333 for the match, and reached that mark or higher in each set except the second.
 
The match had just four lead changes as the Chants enjoyed a lead for most of the morning. Two of the lead changes came in Coastal's second set loss.
 
Match 2: Coastal 3 - Towson 2
Towson and Coastal alternated wins in the first three sets, respectively. The Chants then rallied from being down 12-19 in the fourth set, eventually coming back to take the game in extra points. Coastal finally pulled ahead in the fifth set and claimed the 21-25, 25-23, 19-25, 32-30, 15-8 victory.
 
The match featured big runs in each set that proved to be the difference makers.
 
The Tigers won the first set thanks to a 6-0 run that broke a 16-16 tie. In the second set, it was a 7-1 Coastal run that brought the Chants from behind and kept them either in the lead or even for the rest of the game. Towson rattled off eight unanswered points in the third set to take a commanding lead early The fourth set featured six straight Coastal points that erased a 19-13 lead for the Tigers. In the deciding set, a 9-1 Coastal run broke a 6-6 tie and helped seal the match for the Chants.
 
Nemeth had a monster performance for Coastal, putting down a season high 26 kills on 53 attempts with only seven errors for a .358 hitting percentage. The sophomore nearly missed a double-double, recording nine digs and tacking on four blocks.
 
Petrenko upped her career high in assists from the morning match and set a Coastal single-match record with 68 assists, breaking the previous high of 59 set by Sara Boothe in 2017. The Chants' 70 total assists were second among Coastal's single-match team records, falling only behind the 74 assists recorded against Appalachian State in 2017.
 
Perugini also had a career performance, recording 27 of Coastal's 72 digs.
 
Bozdeva and Kyla Manning tallied double-digit kills, finishing with 16 and 15, respectively. Coastal tallied 10 blocks as a team with Hannah Emerson tallying four to match Nemeth as the Chant's co-leaders.