BALTIMORE – Coppin State volleyball team's upset bid against Villanova came just short as the Eagles fell to the Wildcats, 3-2 (25-16, 18-25, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13) on Thursday night at PEC Arena. CSU now stands at 1-2 on the season while Villanova moves to 1-0. The Wildcats finished 22-9 last season and were ranked 60
th in RPI.
The Eagles hit a school-record in a five-set match, notching a .320 hitting percentage with three players reaching double figures in kills. After struggling in the opening set,
Miajavon Coleman came through with a match-high 14 kills while hitting .250, along with a pair of blocks and five digs.
Middle hitters
Jordan Celestine and
Chudear Tut continued their impressive play with Celestine hitting a whopping .588, recording 12 kills on 17 swings and a team-high three blocks. A freshman from Minneapolis, Tut added a season-high 11 kills and a .304 hitting percentage.
Salma Gonzalez added eight kills while
Sydney Hicks chipped in with another six kills. Quarterbacking the offense, who was without outside hitter
Paola Caten, was
Kareemah Hopkins, who assisted on 44 of the team's 56 kills. Hopkins had her best offensive output of the season with five kills on six swings and three service aces.
Ashley Roman was as reliable as always at the libero position, notching a season-high 28 digs which is her second-most as an Eagle and the fourth-most in school-history.
In the opening set, Villanova jumped ahead early, taking an 8-3 lead, and forcing a Coppin timeout. The Wildcats continued to go on a 6-2 run after the stoppage and took the opening frame, 25-16 as the Eagles hit .000 in the session.
Coppin dominated the second set, 25-18 to even the match, hitting a blistering .364 compared to just .167 for the Wildcats. CSU got out to a 3-0 lead behind a kill from Hicks followed by a pair of aces from Hopkins. Villanova came right back with three-straight points, but the Eagles were able to put some distance behind them with three 4-1 runs over the course of the set.
The Eagles continued their hot hitting in the third set with a .407 percentage on 27 swings to take the frame, 25-23. Clinging to a 20-19 advantage, Hopkins recorded a pair of kills off passes by Coleman and defensive specialist
Aislynn Weaver to go up, 22-19 and force a Wildcats timeout. Villanova was able to pull within, 23-22, forcing a CSU timeout but Hicks answered with a kill to give Coppin a set-point. After a service error, the Eagles forced an attack error by the Wildcats to go up two sets to one.
Villanova went on a 5-0 run to take an 11-7 lead in the fourth set, but the Eagles fought right back with four-straight points with kills from Tut, Coleman and Gonzalez to tie it up. The Wildcats were able to regroup, going on a 4-1 run and CSU was unable to get closer than two points the remainder of the way. Despite the loss, Coppin hit a whopping .632 for the frame, but VU was able to hit .583 with two extra with 15 kills compared to the Eagles' 13.
The deciding set featured the teams trading points a third of the way though, but Villanova scored three-straight points to go up, 8-5 at the stoppage. Following a Wildcats error, Coppin got kills from Gonzalez and Coleman to tie the score and the teams went back to trading points once again. With the set tied at 12-12, VU got a pair of kills to force a CSU timeout at 14-12. Tut answered for Coppin with a kill, forcing a Villanova timeout, and the Wildcats were able to put the match away with a kill.
Villanova hit .338 for the match but recorded 18 service errors as the teams combined for 37 service errors on the night. The Wildcats got 14 kills each from Maddie Barber and Clare Delaplace while Sophia Howling added 13.
The Eagles return to action on February 18-19 against MEAC rival Howard University. Both matches will start at 6 pm with Thursday's match taking place at PEC Arena.
