NORFOLK, Va. – In a battle for first place,
TaKenya Stafford posted a match-high 14 kills to lead the Coppin State volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-22) victory at Norfolk State on Friday night at Gill Gymnasium. The Eagles improve to 15-3 on the year and 5-0 in league play while the Spartans fall to 5-7 overall and 4-1 in the conference.
Stafford swung .220 with just five errors on 41 swings while adding seven digs and three blocks.
Geraldyn Palacios added eight kills, followed by
Paola Caten with seven kills while not recording an error to hit .538.
Hope Casel and
Laila Ibrahim chipped in with six and five kills, respectively, with Ibrahim leading the way with four blocks.
Andrea Tsvetanova assisted on 37 of the team's 42 kills while matching Palacios with a pair of aces, quarterbacking the offense to a .263 hitting percentage.
Andrea Serrano led the back row with 11 digs with
Ashley Roman and
Coco Figueroa adding seven digs apiece as CSU held Norfolk State to a .111 hitting percentage. Roman and Figueroa also had an ace while Tsvetanova dumped a pair of kills.
Set 1
- The opening set was close through the midway point with Coppin getting to the 15-point mark first following an NSU service error.
- Norfolk State got a kill to pull to within, 15-14, before the Eagles scored eight-straight points featuring a pair of kills by Stafford and an ace by Figueroa.
- Three-straight errors by CSU and a pair of NSU points got the hosts within 24-19 before Stafford finished the set with a kill.
Set 2
- Coppin never trailed in the second set and began to pull away with an early 6-0 run to take a 12-5 lead. Stafford collected three-straight kills during the spurt before an ace by Palacios.
- CSU kept the lead intact but doubled up the Spartans at 20-10 following four-straight points with kills by three different players, including Tsvetanova at the point of attack.
- The Eagles kept the momentum and got two more kills from Stafford down the stretch to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
Set 3
- Once again, the Eagles never trailed , but Norfolk kept it a bit more interesting by pulling within two later in the set.
- After the Spartans pulled to within, 21-19, Coppin forced an error before getting a kill from Casel and a block by Ibrahim and Stafford to get to match-point.
- Three-straight NSU points got it back to 24-22, but head coach Tim Walsh called a timeout and Stafford finished the match with a kill.
Up Next: Coppin returns home for a matchup with Howard on Sunday, October 8 at 3:00 pm. Fans can watch the match on
www.coppin.edu/watch or listen at
www.baltimorepositive.com
