NORFOLK, Va. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team dropped its first Sun Belt Conference match of the year on Friday night, falling to the ODU Monarchs 3-1 (12-25, 25-15, 19-25, 22-25) in Norfolk, Va. With the loss, the Chanticleers dropped to 14-6 on the year and 6-1 in SBC play. The Monarchs improved to 8-10 overall and 3-2 in the conference with the win.
 
Coastal Carolina was led by Ella Saada with 21 kills, while Christina Nance, Paulina Perez Rosas, and Jasmine Rivest added eight, five, and five spikes, respectively. Setter Brigitta Petrenko finished with 38 assists and four service aces.
 
Defensively, Saada finished with eight digs, while defensive specialist Lina Perugini and Perez Rosas aided with seven and six digs, respectively. Nance and Petrenko totaled two blocks each.
 
In the opening set, the home-standing Monarchs opened the match with nine consecutive points to take an early 9-0 lead. The Chanticleers and ODU traded points before the home team sandwiched a second trade with a pair of 3-0 runs to take a 12-point advantage at 19-7.
 
The Monarchs played Coastal even and increased its lead to 13 points three times before closing out the opening set at 25-12.
 
Despite trailing in the match 1-0, Coastal Carolina battled back from the early 3-1 deficit using a 7-2 surge to take an 8-5 lead and forced ODU to call its first timeout of the set. Coming out of the timeout, CCU increased its lead to 10-5 on kills by Saada and Perez Rosas.
 
Highlighted by three kills by Saada, a 7-3 burst by the Chanticleers doubled the Monarchs at 16-8 and forced the home team to call its second timeout of the set. Out of the timeout, Petrenko sparked Coastal to a 22-11 advantage with three of her four service aces. The Chants closed out the second set at 25-15 by matching ODU over the final eight points.
 
With the match even at 1-1, the Monarchs raced out to the early 3-0 advantage in set three before a pair of put downs by Saada pulled the Chants to within at 3-2. Coastal used a 4-1 burst to fight back and cut the lead to one again at 9-8 on kills by Saada, Nance, and Valentina Varani. The Monarchs outscored the visitors from Conway 6-3 to take a 15-11 advantage at the media timeout.
 
Coming out of the timeout, Coastal pulled to within three points on five different occasions, with the last being 22-19 on a Monarch attack error but was unable to get any closer. ODU capped the 25-19 third set win with a 3-0 run.
 
Down in the match 2-1, the Chanticleers opened the fourth set with the first two points to take a 2-0 lead on a kill by Saada and a Petrenko service ace. However, the Monarchs battled back to even the set up at 5-5 just before the two teams would trade points, with neither team able to take more than a one-point advantage.
 
In the set, the Chants and ODU would trade the lead three times and finished with 10 ties over the next 38 points, with the Monarchs taking a set-high, four-point lead at 16-12. However, Coastal fought back to take a 17-16 lead, and forced the home team to call a timeout right after the media timeout.
 
The come-from-behind surge was sparked by an ODU service error and included kills by Saada and Petrenko along with a Varani service ace.
 
Both teams traded points, with the largest lead being one, until the Monarchs earned the fourth-set 25-22 win with a 3-0 run to complete the 3-1 Sun Belt Conference win.
 
Coastal Carolina will return to action on Saturday in Norfolk, Va., as the Chants look to get back in the win column against ODU at 1 p.m. ET.
 
For complete coverage of CCU women's 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.