Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PHILADELPHIA – The Coppin State volleyball team knows its best is yet to come this season.
 
In the meantime, there will be heartbreaking moments like Saturday's tough 3-2 setbacks to host La Salle and Manhattan on the second day of the La Salle Invitational at Tom Gola Arena.
 
Coppin State (2-2 overall) dropped a pair of tough matches it believes will yield fruit later in the season. Coppin State lost to La Salle 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 19-25, 15-13. A few hours later, the Eagles fell to Manhattan 18-25, 13-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-13.
 
Coppin State's effort and energy was strong enough that if he were human, William Penn, the iconic 37-foot bronze statue who overlooks the city of Brotherly Love from atop City Hall, would've tipped his cap in their honor as the Eagles headed home back down Interstate 95.
 
Both matches were fiercely fought and had more drama than an episode of "Scandal."
 
In the decisive fifth sets, the Eagles and Explorers (1-2) were tied seven times during the tense finish while Coppin State and Manhattan (3-0) were knotted up eight times. In each instance, the final ties occurred at 13-13.
 
Despite the two losses, Coppin State still enjoyed a monumental weekend in one of the nation's most historical cities as it accomplished something no other volleyball team did in program history by starting the season with two straight wins.
 
Against Manhattan, the Eagles had four players finish with double digit kills led by the tandem of Cindy Okpegbue and Ariel Richard, who had 14 each. Freshman Maya Horner had 12 kills along with eight digs. Kandace Thomas had 10 kills. Together the quartet combined for 89.2 percent of the Eagles' 56 kills.
 
Okpegbue was named to the La Salle all-tournament team following her performance in the four matches in which she collected at least 20 kills in three of them. Overall, during the two-day tournament, Okpegbue finished with a team-high 76 kills, an average of 4.65 per set, and 33 digs. Okpegbue also tied for second on the team in blocks with seven along with Richard and Thomas.
 
After delivering a career-best 61 assists in the opening loss to La Salle, Chelsee Sauni finished with 45 assists, which was two more than the entire Manhattan squad. Sauni now has 1,992 assists in her sparkling career. She is eight away from becoming the second woman in program history to record at least 2,000 for her career as she continues her assault on the all-time program record of 2,406.
 
Freshman Bailee Jackson led Coppin State with 22 digs against Manhattan and Gabrielle Otero added 18 digs. In the loss to La Salle, Otero had 30 digs and Jackson contributed 11 digs.
 
Okpegbue had a match-best 25 kills against La Salle. Thomas did what she could as she contributed 18 kills while hitting a ridiculous .615. Richard collected 13 kills for Coppin State. Overall, the Eagles did enjoying a .322 hitting percentage and still fell short to host the Explorers.
 
Championship teams are built in August and September and by the time conference play rolls around, the veteran and talented Eagles believe they will be a fully-functioning machine clicking on all cylinders. They are continuing to work the kinks out as they fine-tune many facets of their game.
 
"I feel like we did great in this tournament," Okpegbue said. "There are things we know that we need to work on as a team and we'll address them during practice this week. Overall, it was a great tournament and we had fun. We're working to win the MEAC championship so these games here help us toward reaching our goal."
 
La Salle was paced by Kelly Perillo's 25 kills and Michelle Healy's 61 assists. In the decisive fifth game, the difference may have been La Salle committed one fewer error than Coppin State (4-3). The Explorers also finished with 12 service aces along with eight blocks.
 
Manhattan's Malia McGuinness had 11 kills along with 15 digs to pace the Jaspers. Allie Yamashiro finished with 14 digs while Jade Gray had 21 assists.
 
Coppin State returns to action Friday afternoon when it meets La Salle in the first round of the Towson tournament. That match is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.