AUBURN, Ala. – Behind a double-double from
TaKenya Stafford in her CSU debut, the Coppin State volleyball team swept McNeese, 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 27-25) in the season opener at Auburn's War Eagle Invitational on Friday afternoon at Neville Arena. This is the fifth-straight season that the Eagles won the first match of the season.
A sophomore from Los Angeles, Calif., Stafford led a well-balanced CSU attack with a match-high 15 kills on .321 hitting, along with 14 digs an ace and a block. Stafford notched her fourth career double-double after recording three as a freshman at Eastern Illinois in 2021.
Three other Eagles players finished with double-digit kills as
Geraldyn Palacios added 11 kills while hitting a team-high .360.
Hope Casel and
Ammaarah Williams added ten each while
Laila Ibrahim chipped in with three kills in just two sets.
Coppin outhit McNeese, .261 to .150 as
Andrea Tsvetanova quarterbacked the offense with a match-high 44 assists, the most of her career in a three-set match. Her 44 assists is the most by a CSU player in a three-set match since
Chelsee Sauni, the school's all-time leader in assists, had 47 assists in a win at Maryland Eastern Shore on November 3, 2013. It is also the most by any MEAC player since Howard's
Stephanie Shultis had 46 at Delaware State on October 26, 2014.
Ashley Roman, the Eagles' record holder in digs, led all players with 17 digs, and she was followed in the category by Stafford,
Andrea Serrano with eight, Williams with seven and both Tsvetanova and Palacios with five. In her return,
Paola Caten had three digs in one set.
Coco Figueroa recorded three digs and had one of the team's three aces in her collegiate debut, joining Tsvetanova, last year's NCAA leader, and Stafford.
CSU got two early kills from Casel in the opening set before the Cowboys came back to take a 7-4 lead, its largest of the frame. Williams recorded two of the next three points with a kill and a block to tie the score at seven. McNeese was able to gain a two-point lead at 11-9, but after back-to-back kills from Ibrahim, the teams traded points until the end of the set. Coppin had three set-points before putting the Cowboys down with a service error and by forcing an attack error.
In the second set, McNeese gained an 8-3 advantage with a 5-1 run before Coppin scored eight-straight points with Palacios and Stafford recording three kills apiece during the stretch. The Cowboys regrouped and tied the score at 16 before taking back the lead momentarily at 20-19. Stafford gave Coppin the lead right back with a kill and an ace and the Eagles finished the set with back-to-back kills from Palacios and
Ahzhi Coleman before forcing two-straight errors.
Neither team led by more than two early in the third set before the Navy & Gold went on a 4-0 run, bookended by kills from both Casel and Stafford, to take a 18-15 lead. The Cowboys called a timeout and regrouped, taking a 24-22 lead before head coach
Tim Walsh called one of his own. Kills from Stafford and Palacios tied the score at 24, forcing another Cowboys timeout which worked as they took a 25-24 lead after an error. Palacios tied it up once again with a kill and the Eagles defense forced a pair of errors to take the set, and the match.
Coppin faces another steep test when it battles Auburn in a 7 pm start on Friday, August 25. Fans can watch the match on SEC Network Plus, which can also be viewed on ESPN+.
