CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina women's volleyball team (0-1) dropped a home contest in five sets (25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 17-25, 9-15) to the Duke Blue Devils (1-0) on Friday night at the HTC Center to open up the 2021 season with the Coastal Carolina Invitational.

The Chanticleers jumped out on the Blue Devils by winning the first two sets of the evening behind super senior Ani Bozdeva's eight kills.

During the first set, Duke took a 4-2 advantage before CCU setter Marija Borcic  put the Chants out in front with seven straight points to go up by the score of 9-4.

The combination of Bozdeva and graduates Ella Saada and Cheyenne Jones combined for seven kills in the 25-17 set one victory.

Both teams played even in set two, holding each other under a .100 hitting percentage. The Chanticleers managed to earn the set two win as they hit .71, while the Blue Devils labored to hit .93. The difference in set two again was the veteran Bozdeva who had five kills in 13 attempts.

After the five-minute break between sets two and three, Duke made adjustments in their attack, hitting shy of .350 in set three. Ade Owokonrian and Payton Schwantz sparked the 25-21 set-three victory with five kills apiece.

Bozdeva tried valiantly to will her team to a win in set three as she racked up a match-high nine kills on 12 attempts.

The Blue Devils never looked back over the final two sets as they held CCU to .135 and -.222 hitting respectively in sets four and five.

Owkonrian and teammate Lizze Fleming totaled 15 kills in the final two stanzas to help seal the comeback victory for the Blue Devils.

Bozdeva led all players with a match-high 20 kills, while Jones pitched in with 12 kills. Fellow Chant Lina Perugini led the match with 27 digs in the loss.

Duke's Alex Springate dished out a match-high 33 assists while teammate Mackenzie Cole had 26 digs.

The Chants return to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET with a showdown with the Iowa Hawkeyes. The match will be 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.