CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team swept the Georgia State Panthers 3-0 (25-12, 25-20, 25-16) in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams in Conway, S.C. on Friday evening. With the win, the Chanticleers improved to 9-5 overall on the year and 1-0 in SBC play, while the Panthers dropped to 4-9 on the season and begin conference action at 0-1.
Coastal earned its 16th consecutive win over Georgia State to improve to 18-3 in the all-time series. The Chants also remained a perfect 14-0 in Sun Belt action versus the Panthers with the Friday night win.
The Chanticleers used a balanced offense attack, as
Jasmine Rivest (8 kills) led five Chants that tallied five or more kills, while
Nyla Shepherd (7),
Paulina Perez Rosas (6),
Kendall Harris (6), and
Agata Lesiak (5) combined for 24 of the team's 41 kills. Setter
Brigitta Petrenko tallied 31 assists, while adding one kill and one service ace.
Defensive specialist
Lina Perugini totaled 17 digs, while
Christina Nance (4) and Shepherd (3) combined for seven of the Chants' 12 team blocks.
In the opening set, CCU and GSU traded a pair of points at 2-2 just before the Chanticleers recorded seven consecutive points off of Rivest's serves, sparked by a spike by Perez Rosas and capped by a Rivest service ace to surge out to a 9-2 advantage. After both teams traded points, with Coastal gaining a nine-point lead at 20-11, Coastal Carolina closed out the first set with a 5-0 run highlighted by a pair of spikes by Perez Rosas that sandwiched back-to-back kills by Shepherd. A Harris kill gave the home team the 25-12 set-one victory and 1-0 match lead.
CCU took the early 2-0 lead on a kill by Rivest and a Panther miscue in the second set, only to see Georgia State battled back-and-forth with the Chanticleers before a Lesiak spike gave the home team a 5-4 edge. With the Chants leading by two at 7-5, Coastal surged out to a five-point advantage as Lesiak and Rivest put down a pair of spikes along with a Perez Rosas service ace to push the home team in front.
CCU's Petrenko gave the Chants their largest lead of the set at seven at 14-7 with her lone kill of the night just before the Panthers began the comeback attempt by outscoring CCU 6-2 to cut the Chants' lead to three at 16-13. Both teams traded points before Coastal opened up a four-point margin at 21-17 with an
Alicia Salgado spike before a pair of Panthers' service aces pulled GSU within striking distance at 22-20. Coastal took the 2-0 match lead with the 25-20 set-two win on a Harris kill and a pair of Georgia State miscues.
In the final set of the match, Coastal again opened with a quick 2-0 lead on a service ace by Petrenko and a GSU mistake before the two teams traded points with the Chanticleers posting two points to the Panthers' one to take 10-5 lead just before Georgia State attempted to battle back just to be done-in by a pair of miscues to trail 12-7. Coastal, by way of a 9-3 surge, took control at 21-10, highlighted by a pair of blocks by Nance and capped by a pair of spikes by Shepherd and
Lauren Malone. With the home-standing Chanticleers needing just four points to claim the win, CCU was content to trade points with the visitors. Coastal got the 3-0 sweep with a 25-16 win as Rivest put the nail in the coffin for the final score.
Coastal Carolina and Georgia State will return to the court at the HTC Center on Saturday, Sept. 24 in Conway, S.C., 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.
