CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team defeated the Marshall Thundering Herd 3-2 (24-26, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20, 15-10) in Conway, S.C., on Friday evening. CCU improved to 16-8 on the season and 8-3 in Sun Belt action with the win. With the loss, the Herd fell to 7-16 overall and 1-10 in the league.
 
The Chanticleers were led by Ella Saada with 22 spikes, while Paulina Perez Rosas, Christina Nance, and Lauren Malone added 10, nine, and eight kills, respectively. Setters Brigitta Petrenko (39) and Jexsamarie Perez (14) Combined for 53 of the Chants' 64 helpers, while Saada and Perez Rosas finished with a pair of service aces each.
 
Defensively, Perez Rosas and Malone finished with three and two stops, respectively, while Nance and Valentina Varani had one block each. Petrenko completed a double-double by leading the team with 18 digs to lead the defense, while defensive specialist Lina Perugini tallied 13 digs.
 
In the opening set, both teams started slowly with six of the first nine points coming by way of errors, with CCU grabbing a 5-4 advantage. Coastal outscored Marshall 9-5 to open a five-point lead at 11-9, highlighted by three put-downs by Saada. The Herd answered with five unanswered points to knot the set at 14-14 before both teams traded a pair of points.
 
The Chanticleers by way of a pair of Jasmine Rivest spikes pushed in front at 17-15 just to see Marshall fire off four-consecutive points to take a two-point advantage at 19-17. However, both teams would trade the next six points to give the Herd a 22-20 lead, only to see Coastal surge in front at 23-22 with a 3-0 burst. Marshall outscored the Ladies in Teal 4-1 to pick up a 26-24 opening set victory.
 
Despite trailing 1-0 in the match, the Chants jumped out to a 10-8 lead with a 3-0 surge after both teams matched each other score-for-score and opened the match seven ties. Coastal increased its lead to 17-11 by outscoring the visiting team from Huntington, W.Va., 7-3, sparked by a Marshall miscue and capped by a pair of service aces from Perez Rosas.
 
The two teams traded the next six points with CCU holding a six-point advantage at 20-14 only to see the Herd cut the Chants' lead to four at 21-17 with a 3-1 run, just before Coastal Carolina scored four unanswered to even the match up at 1-1 with a 25-17 set two win.
 
In the third set, Coastal raced to an 8-3 lead with a 5-0 surge, highlighted by a pair of kills by Rivest. The Chanticleers pushed their lead to 13-6, aided by a pair of kills by Malone. The Herd battled back to cut the home team's lead to three at 16-13 by outscoring CCU 7-3.
 
The Chants surged back in front by five at 21-16 as a block assist by the tandem of Varani and Perez Rosas sparked a 5-3 run as a Saada kill capped the burst. However, Marshall outscored CCU down the stretch 9-2 for the 25-23 third-set win.
 
Coastal opened the fourth set with a 14-5 surge as the Chants used a pair of 3-0 runs and a 4-0 burst, highlighted by Nance and Perez Rosas combining for four spikes. Despite trailing by nine, the Herd outscored the Chanticleers 11-5 and forced CCU to call both of its timeouts and cut the Coastal lead to two points at 19-17. The Chants answered with a 4-0 surge to take a 23-17 lead, highlighted by three-consecutive errors by Marshall. Coastal Carolina evened the match at 2-2 with the 25-20 set-four win with a pair of Perez Rosas spikes.
 
In the fifth and final set, CCU raced out to a 6-2 lead, highlighted by three kills by Saada. After both teams traded the next five points, the Chants increased their lead to 10-5 as both Perez Rosas and Saada found seams in the Herd's defense.
 
CCU forced Marshall to call its first timeout of the night as Malone blocked a Herd attack to give Coastal a 12-6 advantage. Unable to stop the momentum after the break, Marshall saw Malone increase the Chants' advantage to 13-6 with her eighth kill of the match. However, the Herd cut the CCU lead to four at 13-9 with three unanswered points just before the Chanticleers earned the 3-2 match win at 15-10 on Saada's 22nd spike of the night.
 
Coastal Carolina will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 29, at the HTC Center on the campus of Coastal Carolina University as both the Chants and Marshall will meet for the second time in as many days 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.