CONWAY, S.C. – Jasmine Rivest and Jalyn Stout led the Coastal Carolina volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep over the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Friday evening in Conway, S.C. The Chanticleers improved to 8-7 on the year and 3-0 in SBC action and App State dropped to 9-5 overall and 0-3 in the conference.
 
Coastal's offense was led by Rivest with 20 kills and Stout with 15 put downs, while Lauren Malone and Valentina Varani added eight and six kills, respectively. Cagla Bengi finished with a match-high 40 assists.
 
Defensively, Coastal finished with two blocks as Varani and Agata Lesiak tallied one block each on the front line. Freshman libero Sydney Lewis tallied a match-high 20 digs while Stout and Bengi added 14 digs apiece. With the double digit digs by both Bengi (third) and Stout (eighth), the duo has a combined 11 double-doubles on the season.
 
The Mountaineers were led by McCall Denny with eight kills while Lulu Ambrose had six kills. Sophie Cain tallied 12 assists. Kenady Roper finished with a team-high 14 digs for App State.
 
The opening set saw the visitors from Boone, N.C., race to a 5-1 advantage before CCU warmed up. Coastal and App State traded points with Coastal closing the gap to 8-4, highlighted by a pair of kills by Rivest. Dilara Unal served the next five points for the Ladies in Teal to put the Chanticleers in front 9-8, sparked by a ball handling error by the Mountaineers and capped off by a service ace by Unal.
 
Over the next eight rallies, CCU opened a three-point lead at 15-12 with a pair of two points surges at the media break. The next six points went back-and-forth before App State cut the lead to 18-17 only to see the Chanticleers use a 3-0 spurt for a 21-17 advantage to force ASU to call its first timeout, highlighted by a pair of kills by Stout.
 
A spike in the middle by CCU's Varani and a miscue by the Mountaineers forced App State to call its final timeout of the set trailing 23-18. Coastal's Rivest put down a pair of kills to close out the opening set with the 25-19 win for the 1-0 match lead for the Chanticleers.
 
In the second set, the Mountaineers jumped out to a 5-3 lead just to see Coastal storm in front with a 7-0 burst that included three service aces by Rivest. App State answered with a 3-1 run to cut the Chants lead to 11-8 before Coastal Carolina responded with a 6-0 run sparked by the first of three spikes by Malone in the run to lead 17-8.
 
After two quick points by the Mountaineers, the Chants' Rivest started and capped off a 3-0 run with a pair of kills for a 20-10 lead. Coastal picked up the second-set win at 25-13 with a 5-3 run that included kills by Bengi, Varani, Rivest, and Stout.
 
However, the Mountaineers would battle early in the third and final set trading the first five points to lead 3-2 before the Chanticleers answered with a 3-0 spurt to take an 5-3 lead that included two kills by Rivest. Appalachian State evened the set with a quick two points before the Chants used a second 3-0 surge to take an 8-5 lead that included the Mountaineers making two more mistakes.
 
After the two squads traded points, App State pushed in front with a 4-0 burst and forced the Chants to call their first timeout of the set trailing 11-10. Coming out of the break, Coastal answered with a 4-0 run of its own, sparked by a Malone kill and capped off by a Varani spike in the middle to lead 14-11.
 
The Chanticleers answered each Mountaineer point to maintain their advantage before App State evened the match at 17-17.  Coastal pushed back in front 19-17 on a pair of kills by Stout only to see the Mountaineers take a slim lead at 20-19. A 4-0 run by the Chants that included a second timeout by Appalachian State put CCU in front 23-20. App State responded with a 3-0 run to even the set at 23-23 just to see the Chanticleers pick up the 3-0 match sweep, highlighted by the Lesiak block for the 25-23 win.
 
Coastal Carolina will host App State again on Saturday afternoon at the HTC Center with an expected 1 p.m. ET opening serve.
 
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.