FORT WORTH, Texas – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team fell 3-0 (19-25, 12-25, 30-32) against Texas A&M in the opening round of the Fight in the Fort tournament on Friday morning in Fort Worth, Texas. With the loss, the Chanticleers fell to 3-1 on the year, while the Aggies improved to 2-2 with the win.
 
Coastal was led by Agata Lesiak (11 kills) and Paulina Perez Rosas (9 kills) offensively, while Nyla Shepherd (5 blocks) and Christina Nance (4 blocks) led the defense.
 
In the opening set, the Aggies jumped out to a 5-1 early advantage with a pair of blocks and Chant miscues before CCU battled back to even the first set at 7-7 with kills by Perez Rosas and Shepherd. After the two squads traded points, TAMU pushed its advantage to six at 14-8 on a Molly Brown spike. The Aggies increased their lead to seven on one of the Chanticleers' nine service errors at 20-13. Coastal pulled to within four points at 23-19 on an Ella Saada spike before the two teams traded points to allow Texas A&M to hold on for a 25-19 set win.
 
After TAMU jumped out to the early 5-2 lead, Coastal battled back to even the second set at 6-6. The two teams traded kills to make it 10-9 in favor of the Aggies, which used the momentum to jump out to a nine-point advantage at 19-10, highlighted by a Lauren Hogan service ace and ball-handling miscues by the Chanticleers to cap off a 9-1 run for TAMU. The Aggies finished off the second set with a 6-2 run for the 25-12, 2-0 match advantage.
 
In the third set, Coastal jumped out to the early 3-2 advantage on kills by Lesiak and Saada just to see Texas A&M battle back to take a slim 6-4 lead. The Chanticleers came alive with a 13-3 run to take a 16-9 advantage forcing the Aggies to take both of their timeouts. Lesiak sparked the run with a kill followed by three consecutive TAMU miscues and a Saada kill, and forced the first of two A&M timeouts.
 
The Aggies tried to break the Chants' hot streak with a Mia Johnson spike but were quickly shut down with Lesiak's second kill during the spurt. CCU's Shepherd and Perez Rosas kept the momentum going with a pair of blocks before the teams traded points. Texas A&M called its second timeout of the run after a Perez Rosas kill, a Nance solo block, and a combined block from Nance and Lesiak. With a five-point advantage at 20-15, the Chants were unable to hold on to the lead as the Aggies fought back to even the score up seven times and claimed the match win with a pair of points for the 32-30 Texas A&M win.
 
Coastal Carolina will return to action later today, as the Chants will take on host TCU at 8 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.