CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina women's volleyball team used a team effort to remain unbeaten in Sun Belt Conference play and cruise to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-20) straight-set win over the ULM Warhawks on Friday night at the HTC Center.
 
The win pushes the Chanticleers to 13-4 overall and 7-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, extending their current winning streak to seven-straight wins and their current regular-season conference match winning streak to 27-straight matches.
 
Coastal improved to 6-0 all-time over ULM (5-19, 1-8 SBC), making it six consecutive sweeps over the Warhawks.
 
A total of 11 Chants combined to record 44 kills, as the home team hit .327 overall for the match in the win.
 
Super senior Ani Bozdeva led the offense with a team-high eight kills, followed by seven spikes from junior Jelena Prolic, six kills by redshirt sophomore Jasmine Rivest, and five kills from redshirt senior Christina Nance.
 
Setters Brigitta Petrenko (23 assists) and Marija Borcic (7 assists) combined to pass out 30 set assists in the win, while junior libero Lina Perugini was everywhere on the floor on the night, tallying 11 assists to go along with a team-high 14 digs.
 
For ULM, outside hitter Cali Assaley recorded 10 kills, while setter Mariana Voloponi e Giordan finished with 24 assists, two blocks, and one service ace. Libero Madeline Hogan picked up a match-high 15 digs, as 10 different ULM players had at least one dig in the loss.
 
Both teams came out on the offensive attack to start the match, as Coastal posted back-to-back kills from Doris Carter and Prolic to take a 2-0 lead out of the gate.
After the two teams went back-and-forth over the next several rallies, the Warhawks took their largest lead of the set at 12-9 on a Phoebe Stigen service ace.
 
The home team took advantage of a ULM attack error and back-to-back kills from Prolic to tie the match up at 12-12, only to see the visitors in white answer with three of the next four points to pull back out in front at 15-13 at the media timeout.
 
Out of the break, the Chants ran off three straight points to take a 16-15 lead on a Rivest kill and refused to relinquish the lead for the remainder of the set, using a 9-4 run highlighted by two kills each from Prolic and Rivest to come away with the 25-19 set-one win.
 
The Warhawks posted a .235 attack percentage over the opening set, which saw nine ties and four lead changes, but was topped by the Chants' outstanding .516 attack percentage with 17 kills and just one attack error on 31 attempts.
 
The second set started much like the first, as the two teams were tied at 3-3 before a kill from the outside by Cheyenne Jones pushed the Chants in front at 4-3 early in the set.
 
CCU would use a 6-0 run highlighted by kills from Petrenko and Bozdeva to run out to a 12-5 lead before back-to-back putaways by Nyla Shepherd and Bozdeva put the Chants on top by eight at 14-6.
 
ULM would get to as close as six at 19-13 on back-to-back points only to see two straight kills from Shepherd and a spike from Bozdeva put the home team up big at 22-13 on its way to the 25-19 second-set victory.
 
Looking for its sixth sweep over the Warhawks in the two teams' all-time history, Coastal opened the third set with kills by Nance, Agata Lesiak, and Rivest, and took advantage of an ULM attack error to take a 4-0 lead.
 
ULM trimmed the Coastal lead to one at 13-12 on back-to-back CCU attack errors and a Kathryn Rashcilla kill, only to see veterans Nance and Bozdeva post two-consecutive kills to push the home team's lead back out to three at 15-12.
 
One more kill each from the duo of Nance and Bozdeva, and a service ace from Lesiak, kept the Chants in front at 18-14 as ULM looked to make a run late in the set. However, a kill by Petrenko jump-started a 5-3 run for the Chants who pulled away late for the 25-20 third-set win and the 3-0 match victory.
 
While both teams had four service aces and ULM held a slight advantage in blocks with 6.0 to 4.0, the Chants hit .327 overall for the match offensively, totaling just 11 attack errors compared to the Warhawks' .111 attack percentage and 21 attack errors on the night.

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