BOONE, N.C. – After an hour-and-a-half delay to the start of the match due to no officials, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (17-8, 11-4 SBC) defeated the Appalachian State Mountaineers (7-20, 3-12 SBC) in straight sets 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-22) on Thursday night in Boone, N.C.
The win marks the eighth-straight victory for the Chanticleers over the Mountaineers and the ninth 3-0, straight-set sweep for Coastal Carolina on the season.
Coastal as a team hit .333 over the three-set match, including hitting .433 with 17 kills and just four errors on 30 total attacks in the opening set.
The Chants also finished with 10.0 total blocks and held the Mountaineers to just a .169 attack percentage for the match.
The CCU trio of
Ani Bozdeva,
Jasmine Rivest, and
Cheyenne Jones led the way offensively for the visiting Chanticleers, as Bozdeva had a match-high 14 kills, followed by Rivest and Jones with 11 and 10 spikes each, respectively.
Rivest hit a stellar .688 on the night, posting 11 kills and no errors on 16 total attacks, and added three blocks on the night, matching Jones,
Ilse Sinnige,
Doris Carter, and
Madison Lowery who all had three total blocks in the win.
The two setters in
Marija Borcic and
Brigitta Petrenko combined for 40 set assists, as each passed out 20 assists for the match, while junior libero
Lina Perugini recorded a match-high 19 digs.
Appalachian State had two players with 12 kills apiece in Victoria Wilform and Mccall Denny, while setter Sam Bickley finished with 26 assists and seven digs. Libero Emma Reilly led the way defensively with a team-high 13 digs.
The opening set started out as a back-and-forth contest, as Coastal held the largest lead of two points at 4-2 on a block by Sinnige and Carter.
After five ties and three lead changes over the next several rallies, the home team took advantage of back-to-back errors from the Chants and a kill from Wilform to take a two-point lead at 10-8.
App State remained in front and took a 15-12 lead, the largest of the set for either team to that point, on a kill from Denny heading into the media timeout.
The Chants ran off three straight points out of the media break by way of a Lowery kill, a block by the duo of Lowery and Rivest, and a solo block from Carter to retie the set up at 15-15.
One lead change and four ties later, App State again pulled out in front by three at 22-19 with the help of a Coastal attack error.
However, the Chants refused to go away and answered with a Jones kill to close out the match scoring the final six points to storm past the Mountaineers and earn the 25-22 come-from-behind win in the first set.
With the momentum on the side of the visitors, the Chants flew out to an 8-3 lead on four Mountaineer errors, a block from Bozdeva and Sinnige, one kill each from Sinnige and Bozdeva, and two kills from Jones.
Following an App State timeout, the Chants continued to roll on, outscoring the Mountaineers 6-4 over the next 10 rallies to extend their lead to 14-6 on back-to-back Bozdeva spikes and forced an App State timeout.
The set turned into a game of runs following the break, as App State scored back-to-back points to cut the Chants' lead to 14-8, only to see CCU answer with a 4-0 run to push the lead to double digits at 18-8 on a Bozdeva ace.
However, the Mountaineers responded with the next six points to get back into the set at 18-14 on three consecutive kills following a Coastal attack error.
App State kept within five points of the Chants over the next several rallies until kills from Denny and Wilform put the home team within three at 22-19.
The next three points went to the Chants, as Coastal closed out the set with kills from Rivest, Bozdeva, and Sinnige to take the 25-19 second-set win and a 2-0 match lead.
The third set played out much like the first, as the game was tight throughout with neither team leading by more than four points for the entire set.
Coastal took a 4-1 lead on a 3-0 run, yet saw the Mountaineers go on a 6-1 spurt of their own to take their first lead of the set at 7-5 on a block from Denny and Anna Kincaid.
The two teams went back-and-forth until CCU again strung together a trio of points, this time highlighted by a kill from Rivest, to put the Teal and Bronze on top at 10-9.
Neither team could separate themselves from the other until another kill from Rivest broke a 17-17 tie and jump-started a 5-1 run by the Chants to take a 21-17 lead on a service ace by
Jelena Prolic.
An App State timeout and a kill by Wilform halted the Coastal scoring run and kick-started a 5-1 advantage by the Mountaineers, cutting the Chanticleers' lead to one at 23-22.
Following a timeout by the Chants, Coastal put the match away quickly with a kill by Bozdeva and an attack error from the Mountaineers to seal the 25-22 third-set win and come away with the 3-0 road match win.
The two teams will play again in the regular-season finale in Conway, S.C. on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 1 p.m. ET. The match will be Senior Day for the Coastal volleyball program.
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.
