CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina volleyball team will travel to Charlotte, N.C., to open the 2023 season as the Chants will compete in the Charlotte Invitational, on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25-26, inside Halton Arena on the campus of UNC Charlotte.
 
COASTAL'S WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Aug. 25 Coastal vs. Elon                                      10 AM ET
Aug. 25 Coastal vs. Charleston Southern        5:30 PM ET
Aug. 26 Coastal at Charlotte                              3 PM ET
 
ABOUT COASTAL
The Chanticleers finished 17-13 last season and second in the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference. Coastal was voted to finish third in the East Division in the 2023 Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll.
 
CCU will welcome back five veterans from last season's squad including Agata Lesiak, Jasmine Rivest, and Lauren Malone. Lesiak, a Warsaw, Poland native, appeared in 29 matches for 76 sets played. The junior opposite hitter totaled 141 kills for 178.0 points for the Chants. Rivest, a Montreal, Quebec, Canada native, will return to Conway after spending the summer working with the Canadian NextGen Training Team. The 5-11 outside hitter saw action in 61 sets over 24 matches played and finished with 132 kills for 146.5 points overall last year for the Chants. Malone, a Red Rock, Texas native, appeared in 24 matches with 53 total sets played as an outside hitter. Also returning for Coastal Carolina are Bailee Earnhardt and Valentina Varani.
 
ABOUT ELON
Coastal leads the all-time series 9-3 over the Phoenix with the last meeting taking place in November 2002. The Elon Phoenix enter the 2023 season with a young team as eight of the 15 players are underclassmen, including six freshmen. The Phoenix will be without five members who counted for 52 percent of the team's kills, 77 percent of assists, 51 percent of blocks, 65 percent of aces, and 38 percent of digs last season.
 
However, Elon returns several crucial pieces this fall, led by co-captains Jordan Gower and Sydney Love. This will be Gower's fifth season with the Phoenix as her 1,353 career digs are already the seventh most in school history. Love ranked second on the team last season in both kills (266) and blocks (85) as an outside hitter.
 
Also returning is Clara LaRue, who appeared in 21 matches last season, tallying 110 kills and earning a spot on the CAA's All-Rookie Team.
ABOUT CHARLESTON SOUTHERN
Coastal is 50-19 all-time versus the Buccaneers, with the last meeting coming in September 2019. Charleston Southern is under first-year head coach Carry Brown, as the Bucs look to build off of a season where they finished with a 15-16 record and posted a top-four finish in the Big South.
 
The Buccaneers were selected to finish in third place in the Big South Conference, their highest placing in over three decades. In addition to the poll, Charleston Southern had multiple selections on the preseason team for the first time in the history of the program. Senior Indigo Young and sophomore Skylar Yates were named to the Big South All-Conference Preseason team.
 
Last fall, Young was named second-team all-conference after setting career bests in every statistical category during her junior season. She led the conference in hitting percentage at .371, which was inside the top 50 in the NCAA, and collected 255 kills and had 75 total blocks.
 
In 2022, Yates earned a spot on the Big South All-Freshman squad, finishing second on the team with 287 kills and averaging 2.63 per set, which was seventh in the Big South. She collected 40 service aces on the year, second-most in the Big South, and was a top-15 mark in single-season program history.
 
ABOUT CHARLOTTE
The 49ers lead the all-time series 10-3 over the Chants, with the last meeting coming in September 2009. Charlotte wrapped up its final season in C-USA with an 11-16 overall record and moved to the American Athletic Conference (AAC) this year.
 
Charlotte's top returners are libero Sophie Whalen, setter Annika Wetterstrom, and middle blocker Lara Kretschmer, who played the most sets on the team in 2022 with 102 sets played each.
 
Whalen led the team with 322 digs, while Kretschmer was second on the team with 90 blocks on the year. Offensively, Wetterstrom led the offense with 712 assists.
 
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.