BALTIMORE – Coppin State's volleyball team sent off its seniors with a dominating, 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-12) sweep of Morgan State in its regular season finale on Friday night at PEC Arena. With the victory, the Eagles broke a school-record with their 24
th win of the season and their 13
th MEAC victory. Prior to the match, Coppin honored it's seniors:
Genesis Hernandez, Ammaarah Williams, Geraldyn Palacios, Paola Caten, Andrea Tsvetanova and
Ashley Roman.
TaKenya Stafford notched a double-double with 11 kills on .393 swinging to go with 11 digs and a pair of blocks. A sophomore from Los Angeles, Calif., Stafford did not record an error on her 28 attempts.
Ammaarah Williams added eight kills, 12 digs and three blocks, followed by Laila
Ibrahim with seven kills on .429 hitting to go with a match-high seven blocks.
Paola Caten added six kills and both
Geraldyn Palacios and
Hope Casel chipped in with four kills apiece.
Andrea Tsvetanova split time at setter and was credited with 18 assists, two aces, five digs, a kill and a block, helping the Eagles hit .252 for the match.
Andrea Serrano tallied ten assists, two digs and two aces in just two sets.
In the backrow,
Ashley Roman led all players with 17 digs and
Genesis Hernandez added three more while receiving the start on Senior Night. The defense, which ranks in the top ten nationally in opponents hitting percentage, held Morgan to .084 hitting, including a -.030 over the final two sets.
Set 1
- After falling behind, 2-0 to start the match, Coppin went on a 6-1 run on a pair of kills by Stafford and aces coming from Williams and Palacios.
- The Eagles maintained the lead the rest of the set despite numerous attempts by Morgan to tie the score.
- With Coppin leading just 23-22, Tsvetanova slammed down a kill off a perfect pass from Roman and the Eagles forced an error to take the opener.
Set 2
- Coppin started strong with a 6-0 run with three kills, including two from Stafford, an ace by Tsvetanova and a block from Ibrahim and Casel.
- After Morgan got on the board on an error, Ibrahim recorded back-to-back kills followed by kills from Williams and Casel to make it a 10-1 score.
- The Eagles continued to pull away with an 8-1 run to go up 19-5 before emptying their bench.
- Morgan made a last-ditch effort and scored seven-straight points to pull within 24-15 before a service error ended the set.
Set 3
- With the score tied at three following a kill by the Bears, Coppin scored nine-straight points as Stafford recorded three-straight kills and finished the run with another.
- Morgan pulled to within seven points at 14-7 before, but the Eagles scored another four consecutive points and later tallied another five-straight, featuring back-to-back aces from Serrano.
- The Bears scored their tenth point of the set on a service error before Ibrahim finished off the Bears with a pair of kills.
Up Next: Winning their third Regular Season championship in the last four seasons, the Eagles will be the No. 1 seed at next weekend's MEAC Tournament and will take on #8 South Carolina State at 11:30 am on Friday, November 17.
