MOBILE, Ala. – No trick or treats for Coastal Carolina's volleyball team on Halloween this year, as the Chanticleers fell on the road at South Alabama 3-1 (18-25, 18-25, 25-16, 15-25) at Jaguar Gym on Sunday in Mobile, Ala.
 
The loss marks the first time that the Chanticleers have lost back-to-back conference matches since falling to Texas State and UT Arlington on Oct. 25 and 27 in 2019.
 
CCU is now 15-7 overall and 9-3 in conference play, while South Alabama took control of the Sun Belt East Division with the win, moving to 19-6 overall and 12-1 in league play.
 
With the win, South Alabama snapped Coastal's winning streak over the Jaguars at 12-straight matches.
 
Coastal held a 10-9 advantage in blocks, however, South Alabama hit .314 for the match compared to the Chants' .208 and tallied 64 digs to the Chants' 41.
 
The Chants were again hampered by service errors, recording 10 errors at the service line in the loss.
 
Graduate transfer Doris Carter nearly posted a double-double with a team-high 14 kills and eight digs, while both Ani Bozdeva and Cheyenne Jones finished with eight kills apiece for the match.
 
Middle hitter Madison Lowery finished with a team-high seven blocks and hit .500 with four kills on eight attack errors.
 
Setter Brigitta Petrenko passed out 35 assists to go along with seven digs and five total blocks, while libero Lina Perugini led the Chants with 11 digs on the day.
 
The Jaguars had three players post double-digit kills in Carissa Bradford (15), Hannah Maddux (14), and Maddie Soboleski (11), while Niki Capizzi hit a match-high .538 with eight kills and one error on 12 total attacks.
 
USA setter Kailey Keeble tallied 43 set assists and 11 digs for a double-double, while Rachel Hickey led the way on the defensive backline with 22 digs for the Jaguars.
 
Coastal looked to rebound from a Friday night loss at Troy by starting the match on Sunday with a service ace from Petrenko to take a 1-0 lead. However, the Jaguars scored the next five points, highlighted by back-to-back blocks at the net to take a 5-1 lead early in the opening set.
 
The Chants slowly kept chipping away at the early USA lead until a kill by Lowery, and back-to-back attack errors by the Jaguars pushed the Chants back in front at 9-8.
 
The next four rallies would see two ties and a lead change before a Coastal service error put the Jaguars on top at 11-10, a lead the home team would not relinquish for the remainder of the set.
 
CCU would score back-to-back points twice but was unable to put together a run of points and got to as close as one at 15-14 and 17-16 on an ace from Ilse Sinnige and a kill from Carter.
 
The Jaguars would outscore the Chants 8-2 for the rest of the opening set to pick up the 25-18 first-set win and take a 1-0 match lead.
 
The second set started out as a tight contest with four ties over the early stages of the game, as CCU tied the set up at 5-5 on a Jelena Prolic spike.
 
The Jaguars put together the first run of the second set, scoring three-straight points to take an 8-5 lead, and they would remain in front of the visiting Chants at 13-11 until back-to-back kills from CCU's Carter tied the set back up at 13-13.
 
Just like in the opening set, the Chants couldn't get the big kill to retake the lead as the Jaguars ran off four-straight points to take a 17-13 lead on three consecutive spikes from Bradford.
 
Coastal would get as close as three at 17-14 on another Prolic kill, yet it wasn't enough as USA rolled on to a 25-18 second-set win.
 
Down 2-0 in the match, the Chanticleers came out fighting to start the third set, scoring the first five points of the frame to storm out to a 7-2 lead on a Carter kill.
 
Following a USA spike, the Chants ran off three-straight points and scored four of the next points overall to take their largest lead of the match at 11-4 on a Lowery and Petrenko block.
 
USA cut the CCU lead to three at 12-9 before the Chants used back-to-back points on a Bozdeva kill and a Petrenko service ace to kick-start an 8-3 run to put the visitors in front by eight at 20-12 on another Lowery and Petrenko combined block at the net.
 
After a South Alabama timeout, the two teams traded points back-and-forth until back-to-back kills from Jones and Carter ended the set with the Chants on top 25-16.
 
The Jaguars jumped out to an early lead to start the fourth set, taking a 7-2 lead on another Coastal service error.
 
Another Carter putaway and a block by the duo of Petrenko and Lowery ended the Jaguars' early run and put Coastal within three at 7-4 before the two teams again traded points and saw a Bozdeva kill put the Chants down four at 11-7.
 
The next Chants' point would come by way of a kill from Christina Nance, however, it was sandwiched in the middle of seven points from the home team who took a double-digit lead at 18-8 on a Hickey service ace.
 
Refusing to quit, Coastal answered with five consecutive points highlighted by two kills from Carter and a solo block by Agata Lesiak, only to see South Alabama answer back with a 5-0 run of its own to take a 23-13 lead.
 
Coastal picked up kills from Jones and Carter over the next four rallies, yet ran out of time as the Jaguars' Capizzi matched the Chants' graduate duo with two kills of her own to help seal the 25-15 fourth-set win and hand the home-standing Jaguars the 3-1 match victory.
 
The Chants as a team hit a match-high .448 in the third-set win, yet hit under .100 in the first and fourth set defeats, while South Alabama hit over .214 in all four sets of the match.
 
The Chanticleers will look to bounce back next weekend, as CCU will host both Georgia Southern (Nov. 5) and Georgia State (Nov. 7) at the HTC Center. Both matches will be video streamed live on ESPN+.

For complete coverage of CCU volleyball, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalVball (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram), or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at www.GoCCUsports.com.