MOBILE, Ala. – Coastal Carolina (4-0, 4-0 SBC) remained undefeated on the 2020 season with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 26-24) victory over South Alabama (4-6, 4-2 SBC) in the first of two matches on Thursday at South Alabama.

Trailing 12-9 in the opening set, Coastal scored four unanswered points to take a 13-12 advantage on a Jelena Prolic kill.  The teams traded points before the Chanticleers took a 16-14 advantage on back-to-back kills by Prolic.  South Alabama fought back to take a 19-18 advantage on an attack error by Coastal's Anett Nemeth before the Chants used a three-point run to take a 21-19 advantage and force a timeout by the Jaguars.  Following the timeout, Coastal stretched the run to four points before South Alabama's Hannah Maddux connected on a kill to close the gap to 22-20.  The teams again traded points before Prolic connected on her fourth kill of the opening set to give Coastal the 25-22 victory.

South Alabama came out swinging in the second set, opening a 6-3 lead before the Chanticleers scored three-straight points to tie the set at 6-6 on a ball-handling error by Maddie Soboleski.  With the set later tied 10-10, Coastal Carolina forced a Jaguar timeout when Christina Nance and Nemeth assisted on a block to take a 13-10 lead.  Maintaining a 15-13 lead, the Chants again scored three-straight points to open an 18-13 cushion and force the second South Alabama timeout of the match.  Just before the timeout, Nemeth and Ilse Sinnige continued Coastal's dominance at the net with blocks.  The Jaguars scored twice coming out of the timeout before a 7-0 run by Coastal ended the second set 25-15.  During the final run, the duo of Nemeth and Sinnige again partnered on a block while the other six points for the Chants came on attack errors and ball-handling errors by South Alabama.

In the third and final set, Coastal built a quick 6-2 advantage and built an 18-13 lead before South Alabama called a timeout to try and stop a 3-0 run by the Chants.  The timeout worked as the Jaguars closed the gap to 18-17 with four quick points assisted by a couple of Coastal attack errors and a kill by Soboleski.  Prolic stopped the run for Coastal with a kill but the Jaguars' Hannah Johnson and Maddux posted consecutive kills to tie the set at 19-19.

After trading points, Harris had another kill and Coastal's Ani Bozdeva had a bad set that gave South Alabama a 21-20 lead and forced a timeout by CCU head coach Jozsef Forman.  The Chants used a pair of service errors by South Alabama and a kill by Nemeth to take a 23-22 advantage.  After holding off one match point by the Chants, South Alabama's Maddux had an attack error to give the Chants a 26-24 win in the third set.

Nemeth and Bozdeva led the Coastal Carolina attack with eight and seven kills, respectively.  Prolic added a third weapon for the Chants as she posted six kills.  Nemeth added three assisted blocks while Sinnige recorded four kills and a team-leading four total blocks, one unassisted.  Brigitta Petrenko had 23 set assists while Lina Perugini led the defense with 12 digs in the quick match.

South Alabama was slowed by miscues all day with 20 attack errors, a .086 hitting percentage, 10 service errors and six ball-handling errors.  Maddux led the Jaguars with 10 kills while Soboleski had 20 set assists.

The second match of today's doubleheader will begin at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcasted on ESPN+.  The final match of the three-match series will be played at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 16.
 
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