CONWAY – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team began its Sun Belt Conference schedule in dominant fashion with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-7, 25-19) win over Georgia Southern on Friday evening at the HTC Center. In addition to being the Chants' conference opener, the contest was Coastal's first at home this season.
 
Coastal improves to 11-2 overall with the win, and has now won each of its four Sun Belt openers since joining the conference in 2016. Furthermore, Coastal has won its last five conference openers dating back to the 2015 season while still in the Big South.
 
Friday's sweep was the sixth of the season for the Chants.
 
Coastal was impressive throughout, holding advantages in kills, hitting percentage, assists, blocks and digs. The Chants were especially impressive on the serve, leading the Eagles 12-2 in aces.
 
Four Chants landed multiple aces, including four by Brigitta Petrenko and two each by Kyla Manning, Anett Nemeth and Haylie Beck.
 
Nemeth recorded a match-high of 10 kills while hitting .231. Petrenko likewise had match highs of 26 assists and nine digs.
 
Coastal led the opening set from beginning to end, using a 7-2 run midway through the game to build a 16-9 lead before closing it out with a 5-1 stretch. The Chants thoroughly dominated the middle frame, grabbing a 14-7 advantage and then finishing the set with 11 unanswered points on the serve of Nemeth.
 
The third set more closely resembled the first, with Coastal building steam through the middle of the game and finishing strong with another 5-1 closing run.
 
Coastal returns to the HTC Center Sunday afternoon to host Georgia State at 12:30 p.m.