BALTIMORE – Hope Casel put down a career-high 18 kills to lead the Coppin State volleyball team to a thrilling, 3-2 (30-32, 21-25, 25-19, 25-16, 15-9) comeback victory over Delaware State on Friday night at PEC Arena. The Eagles now stand at 17-3 overall and remain perfect in the MEAC at 7-0 while the Hornets fall to 11-11 on the year and 4-4 in league play.
Casel led four CSU players with double digit kills as she hit .300 with just six errors on 40 swings. A junior from Tyler, Texas, Casel also had three digs and a pair of blocks. Casel got stronger as the match went on, recording 13 kills while swinging .417 on 24 attacks as the Navy & Gold rallied from a 2-0 deficit.
TaKenya Stafford posted a double-double with 15 kills and 13 digs while serving a pair of aces.
Paola Caten added 11 kills on .345 hitting to go with seven digs and four blocks while
Laila Ibrahim finished with ten kills and three blocks.
Geraldyn Palacios just missed out on double digits, recording nine kills while hitting .444 while leading all players with six blocks.
Divine Muo also chipped in with a season-high three kills, three digs and a block.
Andrea Tsvetanova notched a double-double, tallying 48 assists along with a season-high 17 digs while adding a season-high six aces to surpass the 200 mark for her career.
Andrea Serrano split time with Tsvetanova at setter and added 12 assists and six digs as Coppin outhit Delaware State, .244 to .165.
Ashley Roman led the back row with 20 digs despite not playing the first set as freshman
Coco Figueroa got the start and finished with 11 digs.
Set 1
- The opening set featured ten ties and three lead changes despite Coppin falling behind by as many as 17-11.
- Kills from Ibrahim and Caten sandwiched a pair of Hornets errors in a 4-0 run to cut DSU's lead to 17-15 and force a timeout.
- A pair of kills from Palacios and another by Caten helped tie the score at 19, forcing another timeout.
- The Hornets scored four of the next five to take a 23-20 lead but the Eagles battled back to force extras with Ibrahim recording a kill and a block during the rally.
- Coppin held a one-point lead five times during the extra rallies but were unable to put it away as the Hornets got a pair of kills to take the first set, 32-30.
Set 2
- Coppin once again needed to rally from a large lead, battling back from a four-point deficit to tie the score at 15.
- The Eagles took a 20-19 lead after an ace by Serrano, forcing a DSU timeout, and the Hornets responded with 6-1 run to take a commanding 2-0 advantage for the match.
Set 3
- Coppin dominated the third set, hitting .250 compared to just .029 for the Hornets with Caten leading the way with four kills, followed by Casel and Stafford with three each.
- The Eagles took an early 6-3 lead to force a timeout as Casel and Caten had two early kills apiece.
- Delaware State regrouped and turned a five-point deficit into a 15-12 lead before Coppin scored four-straight as Ibrahim tallied a kill and a block, along with back-to-back aces from Stafford.
- A solo block by Palacios a few points later forced another Hornets timeout at 22-18 before CSU sealed it with a kill from Stafford followed by back-to-back blocks to finish off the frame.
Set 4
- Coppin never trailed or was tied in the fourth, opening the frame with a 7-0 run, but Delaware State responded with six-straight of its own to pull within 7-6.
- Stafford stopped the drought with a kill and Coppin never looked back as Casel put together six of her seven kills of the set during the next 14 points.
- Caten and Muo finished the set with kills.
Set 5
- The teams traded points throughout the first half of the set before the Hornets took an 8-6 lead after an Eagles error.
- After the teams switched sides, Coppin scored four-straight points as Stafford recorded a pair of kills and Tsvetanova picked up an ace to give CSU a 10-8 advantage.
- Both teams recorded service errors before Casel cemented the comeback with kills on either side of a pair of DSU errors.
Up Next: Coppin will make the trip across the Bay Bridge to face Maryland Eastern Shore at 1 pm on Sunday, October 22.
