WINSTON SALEM, N.C. – Coppin State's volleyball team's season came to an end with a 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 25-17, 21-19) loss in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship at Wake Forest on Friday night at Reynolds Gymnasium. The Eagles finish their best season in program-history with a 23-11 record.
Inside the Numbers
- Playing in her final collegiate match, Yaniris Miller-Green led Coppin with 17 kills on .324 hitting to go with five blocks. She finished her lone season at CSU with a career-high 239 kills and 86 blocks while tallying 153 kills and 72 blocks in her two seasons at Florida International.
- Ammaarah Williams and Geraldyn Palacios also finished in double figures in kills with 12 and ten, respectively. Williams added eight digs while Palacios was credited with three blocks, and her ten kills matched a season-high.
- The Coleman sisters, Miajavon Coleman and Ahzhi Coleman, both finished with nine kills with Ahzhi adding a team-high seven blocks to match a career-high.
- Miajavon Coleman finished her career as arguably the best player in CSU history, and one of the best in the history of the MEAC. Her 1,742 kills is a school-record, the third-most in MEAC history, and the most by a MEAC player since the NCAA adopted the 25-point set in 2008. Coleman also ranks fifth at CSU in digs (1,046) and blocks (185) and is the only player in school-history with 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.
- Andrea Tsvetanova finished with a double-double 49 assists and 15 digs to go with five aces and two blocks. In the second set, she broke the CSU single-season record for assists (1,198) and moved into third place in Coppin's all-time assist list (2,028). With her five aces, she finished the season with a Nation's leading 114 aces (0.86 per set) which is tied for third-most in the NCAA since 2008 (Mariena Hayden, UNLV, 2018) and tied for the second-most all-time by a MEAC player.
- Ashley Roman led all players with 23 digs to extend her single-season record to 617 on the season. It was her 13th match this season with at least 20 digs and the 43rd time in her career. Finishing the season with 1,944 career digs, she is just 122 digs shy of the MEAC all-time record.
- Wake Forest outhit Coppin, .236 to .167, with the Eagles hitting a blistering .333 in the second set, followed by a .206 in the first and .182 in the third.
- The Demon Deacons got 21 kills from Paige Crawford and three others recorded at least ten kills.
- Making its postseason debut, Coppin's two set victories were its first-ever against an ACC opponent.
How it Happened
- Wake Forest maintained a lead for most of the first set before Coppin broke through to tie the score at 15-15. After a pair of Deac points, Williams brought the Eagles back to within 17-16.
- The Deacs answered right back with a 3-0 run which was matched by Coppin, featuring a pair of kills from Miajavon Coleman sandwiching one from Miller-Green.
- Both teams traded 2-0 runs until Wake took the opener on a blocking error.
- Coppin began to pull away in the second set with an 8-0 run to take a 16-8 lead. Key on the run was an ace from Tsvetanova and kills from four different Eagles.
- Wake regrouped following a timeout and managed to tie the score at 22-22 before Palacios finished the set off with a block and a kill.
- The Eagles took a 2-1 lead in the match with a victory in the third. Trailing, 21-20, Coppin went on a 4-0 run with kills from Williams and Miller-Green. Following a kill from Wake, Miller-Green sealed the win with a kill from Roman.
- Wake never trailed in the fourth set as Coppin recorded nine attack errors to limit its chances.
- The fifth set was a back-and-forth affair at the end, featuring six ties and a pair of lead changes in the shortened frame.
- Wake took a comfortable 11-7 lead but Coppin battled back with a 4-1 run with kills from Williams and Miller-Green while Williams paired with Ahzhi Coleman for a block.
- After two-straight Demon Deacons points- gave the hosts a 14-11 lead, CSU tied it up on a kill from Williams, an ace by Gabi Theut, and a block from Miller-Green and Ahzhi Coleman.
- Coppin had match-points at 16-15 and 17-16 but was unable to seal the match. The Eagles also fended off Wake match-points at 18-17 and 19-18 before Williams tied it up at 19-19 with a kill.
- Wake took the match on a kill before forcing a Coppin attack error.
