TOWSON, Md. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team defeated Youngstown State 3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 23-25, 25-17) on Saturday morning to win the Towson Invitational and remain undefeated this season.
The Chants previously made school history on Friday by winning their seventh and eighth consecutive matches to start the season, and have now pushed their perfect record to 9-0 with Saturday's win. It is also the first time in program history that Coastal has won its first three non-conference tournaments.
Ani Bozdeva and
Anett Nemeth were named to the Towson Invitational All-Tournament Team, and Bozdeva was additionally named Tournament MVP.
Bozdeva averaged 4.18 kills per set while hitting .277 over the three matches. The junior also averaged 1.73 digs per set while totaling four blocks and a pair of aces. Nemeth averaged 3.92 kills per set while hitting .282, recorded six blocks and five service aces, and averaged 1.83 digs per set.
Mariia Levanova had a career day as the outside hitter put down 17 kills while hitting .517. Levanova completed her first double-double of the season with a team-high 11 digs, and added a pair of blocks.
Also reaching double figures in kills were
Kyla Manning (11) and
Ani Bozdeva (10). Each of the outsides hit an identical .194 for the match.
Freshman setter
Brigitta Petrenko surpassed the 40-assist mark for the fourth straight match, dishing out a match-high 43 helpers.
Anett Nemeth served the Chants to the first five points of the match, and the Chants continued to roll from there. Coastal led the opening set from start to finish, and fell behind just three times during the second set, each time by only a single point.
After falling in the third set, the Chants used 8-1 and 5-1 runs in the fourth frame to take a commanding lead and hold Youngstown State to its lowest point total of the match.
Coastal finishes its non-conference schedule next weekend at the Cy-Hawk Invitational hosted by Iowa. The Chants play a pair of matches on Friday against Iowa State (2 p.m. ET) and Iowa (8 p.m. ET), and take on Lipscomb (2 p.m. ET) on Saturday in their final non-conference match.