CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina women's volleyball team held off a very good Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns team to move to 8-0 in Sun Belt Conference play with a 3-2 win (25-18, 25-18, 21-25, 19-25, 15-10) over the visiting Cajuns on Sunday afternoon at the HTC Center.
 
The win propels the Chanticleers to 14-4 overall, 8-0 in Sun Belt Conference play, and extends their current winning streak to eight-straight wins and their current regular-season conference match winning streak to 28-straight matches.
 
Coastal improved to 6-0 all-time over Louisiana (11-6, 6-3 SBC) and moved to 10-1 at home inside the HTC Center this season with the win.
 
Cheyenne Jones led the attack for the Chanticleers in the five-set win with a new CCU career-high 18 kills on a .344 attack percentage. She also added five blocks at the net, second behind only Madison Lowery and her team-high six total blocks to go along with her nine kills.
 
Outside hitter Jelena Prolic matched her season-high with 13 kills to go along with eight digs, and one block assist, and matched fellow junior Brigitta Petrenko with a match-high five service aces in the win. Petrenko also finished with a match-high 40 set assists, while junior libero Lina Perugini picked up 20 digs, marking the eighth time this season she has tallied 20 digs or more in a match.
 
For Louisiana offensively, the Cajuns were led by outside hitter Kelsey Bennett with 18 kills and eight digs, while fellow outside hitter Emery Judkins added nine kills. The setter combo of Siena DeCambra (23 assists) and Reka Kotorman (22 assists) combined to pass out 45 set assists in the five-set match, while at the net middle blocker Kara Barnes recorded a match-high seven total blocks.
 
Both teams had 11 service aces on the match, while Louisiana held a slight 10-9 advantage in total team blocks on the day. However, Coastal was more efficient on the attack, as the Chants hit .270 as a team for the match compared to the Ragin' Cajuns' .235 attack percentage, and registered 65 kills to the visitor's 50 spikes.
 
Louisiana opened the match with a kill to take a 1-0 lead before answering every Coastal point with a point of its own to hold on to a 10-8 lead over the Chanticleers in the opening set.
 
Back-to-back kills from Prolic and Jones, followed by a block from the duo of Jones and Lowery, and then a putaway at the net by Lowery pushed the Chanticleers out in front at 12-10 on the 4-0 run.
 
Louisiana took advantage of back-to-back CCU attack errors to knot the score up at 12-12 before the Chants scored the next three points on kills from Lowery and Jones and a Cajun attack error to give the home team a 15-12 lead at the media timeout of the first set.
 
The Cajuns closed the gap to one at 15-14, only to see the Chants use a pair of 3-0 spurts to take a 21-15 lead before closing the set out at 25-18 with a kill from Jasmine Rivest and a service ace by Petrenko.
 
Up 1-0 in the match, the Chants used a 9-0 run following a Louisiana service ace to storm out to a 9-1 lead highlighted by three service aces from Petrenko to start the second set.
 
After Coastal used a 4-0 run which included a Jones' kill, back-to-back service aces from Prolic, and a Jones' solo block to take a double-digit lead at 13-3, the Ragin' Cajuns outscored the Chants 9-1 over the next 10 rallies, including using a 6-0 run of their own, to cut the Coastal lead to two at 14-12 on a Decambra service ace.
 
Despite the Louisiana run, the Chants refused to relinquish the second-set lead, as the two teams traded kills until two-straight spikes from Rivest and another kill from Prolic put the Chants in front at 19-14 and forced a Louisiana timeout.
 
The two teams went point-for-point back-and-forth until the women in teal closed the set out with kills from Jones, Nyla Shepherd, and Petrenko to seal the 25-18 second-set win.
 
CCU jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the third set on another Jones' kill and looked poised to make a run at the straight-set win. However, the visitors in black used a 6-1 run to take an 8-6 lead on a Bennett kill, and after the Chants tied the score up at 9-9 on a Shepherd kill and then service ace, the Ragin' Cajuns retook the lead for good at 10-9 on a Lianne Sonneveld kill.
 
Back-to-back points from Prolic on a kill and another service ace put the Chants down just two at 14-12, yet the Cajuns answered with a 5-2 spurt, including two-straight blocks at the net, to pull out to their largest lead of the match at 19-14.
 
Four consecutive kills from Rivest, Prolic, and Jones put the home team down just one at 22-21, yet a service error, a Bennett kill, and an attack error by the Chants ended the third set with the Ragin' Cajuns on top 25-21.
 
Louisiana, who hit .458 for the third set, posting 12 kills and only one error on 24 total attacks, carried the momentum over from the third-set win to the fourth set where the Ragin' Cajuns hit .333 for the set, taking the 25-19 set win to force a fifth and decisive set.
 
The fourth set saw 13 ties and seven lead changes, as no team scored more than three points in a row in the back-and-forth set.
 
Coastal opened the fourth frame with a kill from Lowery only to see the two teams trade 3-0 runs to put the home team on top at 4-3.
 
After Louisiana tied the score up at 4-4 on a Judkins' spike, the next several rallies saw one lead change and five ties before a 3-0 run by the Ragin' Cajuns drove the visitors in front by three at 12-9 on a CCU attack error.
 
CCU battled back with a 3-0 run of its own to tie the set up again at 12-12 on a Prolic kill, and then fought back with three-straight points again to take a 15-14 lead on an Ani Bozdeva spike.
 
Three ties and three lead changes later, Louisiana retook the lead at 19-18 lead on back-to-back blocks and then outscored the Chants 6-1 over the remainder of the set to pick up the 25-19 set win and tie the match score up at 2-2.
 
The fifth and decisive set did not disappoint, as the two teams battled from the start, forcing seven ties and two lead changes in the tight set.
 
The two teams went back-and-forth and saw the score at 8-8 until a block by Prolic, a kill from Jones, and a block from the tandem of Jones and Lowery gave the Chants the largest lead of the set at 11-8 to force a Louisiana timeout.
 
CCU, who hit .300 as a team in the fifth set, traded errors with the Cajuns to take a 13-9 lead before capping the 15-10 win with back-to-back kills from Lowery and Jones.
 
The Chanticleers will kick off a four-match Sun Belt Conference road trip in the state of Texas next weekend. CCU will take on Texas State on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. ET and then turn around to face off with UT Arlington on Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. ET.

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