Busy Week Ahead for Volleyball with Three Matches in Five Days Including Education Game vs. American

BALTIMORE - Coppin State's volleyball team hosts American University in an 11:00 am Education Game on Wednesday, September 27 before traveling South for MEAC matchups at South Carolina State (Sept. 29) and NC Central (Oct. 1). The Battle of the Eagles on Wednesday can be watched on www.coppin.edu/watch and heard on www.baltimorepositive.com.
 
On Sunday at NCCU, a live video stream and live statistics will be available.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Coppin (12-2, 2-0 MEAC) earned back-to-back MEAC wins at Delaware State on Friday before besting Maryland Eastern Shore in its home opener on Sunday. TaKenya Stafford had 18 kills with 16 digs against the Hornets before coming back with a career-high 21 kills and six blocks to go with eight digs. Ashley Roman had a pair of 20+ dig matches while Geraldyn Palacios had ten blocks in the two wins. Stafford was then named MEAC Player of the Week while Roman shared Defensive Player of the Week honors.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Coppin is 0-18 all-time against American after falling, 3-1 to AU last season.  It was the first time that Coppin ever took a set from American. CSU is 8-18 all-time against South Carolina State but have won seven-straight without losing a set. Coppin is 8-5 against NCCU with three-straight wins and both meetings went five sets last season.
 
SCOUTING THE FIELD
AMERICAN
American is led offensively by Zeynep Uzen with just over four kills per set, followed by Holly Hopkins with 103 kills and a trio of players at 74 and 73 kills, respectively, in Carly Sciborski, Carlie Fikse and Sofia Osterdahl. Esma Sipahi commands the offense at setter with nearly ten assists per set while a strong defensive team is led by Bridget Javitch with 3.32 digs per set. Sipahi and Uzen also put up a pair of digs per set while Fiske has registered 43 blocks on the year. Lilou Stegeman puts up over a block per set while Sipahi and Uzen have combined for just over 50 blocks.
 
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
The Bulldogs won a set at Norfolk State last week with Eleisha Thompson leading the offense with 92 kills.  Just behind her are Kiyah Felder (66), Hailey Harris (58) and McKinley Roach (47).  Delaney Davis is also at 1.42 kills/set in her time. Kaia Barnett puts up 5.57 assists and she ranks third on the team in digs, just behind Trinity Stevenson and Miya Benson. Harris, Roach and Felder are the top blockers, combining for 60 blocks.
 
NC CENTRAL
NCCU hosts Morgan State between the Eagles come to town and are led by Kamren Harper and Emmie Modlin at the attack with Jeslyn Spencer third on the team with 78 kills. Bella Dearinger has put up 5.76 assists while Loren Johnson is one of the top backrow players in the league at 3.81 digs, followed by Dearinger with 2.07 digs. NCCU is a good blocking team with six players in double digits, led by Jenelle Mason (19), Modlin (16) and Kennedy Clark (12).
 
20 FOR 20
In Coppin's five-set win over MD Eastern Shore on Sept. 24, TaKenya Stafford, who wears #20, recorded a career-high 21 kills while hitting .250. It was the second 20+ kill match of her career as she tallied 20 kills at Belmont as a member of Eastern Illinois on Oct. 15, 2021. She is the first CSU player to record 20 kills since Miajavon Coleman had 20 against NC Central on Sept. 25, 2022.
 
'A' TEAM WINS WEEKLY AWARDS
Ashley Roman, Andrea Tsvetanova and Ammaarah Williams all received MEAC Weekly awards on Sept. 4 with Williams earning Player of the Week, Roman was Defensive Player of the Week and Tsvetanova as Setter of the Week.  Williams is now a 4x Player of the Week in her career.  Roman has received Defensive Player of the Week 17 times and Tsvetanova is a 12x Setter of the Week.
 
The following week on Sept. 11, Roman and Tsvetanova picked up MEAC weekly honors once again and Roman shared the award once again on Sept. 25.
 
STUFFED AT THE NET
Laila Ibrahim matched a school-record with 11 blocks in a 4-set victory over Portland on Sept. 16. This propelled her to earning All-Tournament Team honors at the UNLV Rebel Challenge and helped her receive MEAC Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 18. Her 11 blocks are tied for the 6th-most in the NCAA this season in a 4-set match.
 
The Eagles also broke a school-record with 17.0 total blocks in the win over the Pilots. This ranks tied for 11th in the NCAA during a 4-set match this season.
 
Individual Single-Match Blocks
1T. Laila Ibrahim         11 (9/16/23)
1T. Yaniris Miller-Green         11 (9/16/22)
1T. Jasmine Lougheed 11 (10/21/16)
4T. Geraldyn Palacios 10 (8/30/22)
4T. Kendra Ireigbe      10 (9/13/14)
 
Team Blocking Records
3-Set: 12.0 vs. E. Michigan (9/13/14)
4-Set: 17.0 vs. Portland (9/16/23)
5-Set: 14.0 vs. E. Michigan (9/16/22)
 
LONGEST WINNING STREAKS
Coppin recorded a seven-match winning streak which is tied for the third-longest in school-history. The Eagles won a program-record ten-straight matches in the 2020 season which was played in the Spring 2021 semester due to Covid.
 
Wins    Dates
10        (2/25/21-4/2/21)
8          (10/25/13-11/16/13)
7          (8/26/23-9/9/23)
7          (9/9/22-10/7/22)
7          (10/14/22-11/4/22)
 
QUEEN OF ACES
After leading the Nation in aces & aces/set last year, Andrea Tsvetanova is the CSU all-time record holder in the category, leads all active players in aces per set and 4th among total aces.
 
Her 114 aces were tied for the 3rd-most in the NCAA since the 25-point scoring format started in 2008. Her 0.86 aces/set was the 4th most during that stretch. She matched an NCAA record with 15 aces in a 3-set match vs. South Carolina State.
 
2022 NCAA Aces/Set
1. Andrea Tsvetanova (CSU)  0.86
2. Abby Nieporte (Lafayette)  0.74
 
2022 NCAA Service Aces
1. Tsvetanova (CSU) 114
2. Mia Wesley (Southern Miss.)         77
 
NCAA Active Career Aces
1. B. Petrenko (Louis.) 214 (419g)
2. D. Richins (Weber St)          188 (473g)
3. Tsvetanova (CSU) 185 (283g)
 
NCAA Active Aces/Set (min. 100 SA)
1. Tsvetanova (CSU) 0.654
2. Brigitta Petrenko (Louis)     0.511
3. Giulia Cardona (Evansville) 0.500
 
SETTING HISTORY IN THREE SETS
In the season opening sweep against McNeese, Andrea Tsvetanova recorded 44 assists, the most of her career in a three-set match. It was the most assists by a CSU player since Chelsee Sauni, Coppin's all-time leader in assists, had 47 assists in a win at Maryland Eastern Shore on November 3, 2013. It was also the most by any MEAC player since Stephanie Shultis of Howard had 46 at Delaware State on Oct. 26, 2014.
 
DIGGING TO THE TOP
Ashley Roman has been named 1st Team All-MEAC all four years and has received the league's Defensive Player of the Year all three times its been awarded.  She recently broke the MEAC record for digs, held by Ashley Preston, who also coached at Coppin from 2012-14. Roman is ranked 5th among active NCAA players in digs and her 4.73 digs/set is also the 11th most amongst the active players with at least 1,500 digs.
 
NCAA Active Career Digs
1. Tara Beilsmith (SEMO)        2,518
2. Rocio Morio (N. Florida)     2,408
3. Carissa Barnes (Texas)        2,289
4. Ellie Snook (USC) 2,246
5. Ashley Roman (Coppin)     2,182
6. Kylie Murr (Minnesota)      2,103
 
MEAC WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Coppin State has had an athlete win the MEAC Woman of the Year award the last three years, and two of them have been volleyball players with Salma Gonzales in 2020 and Miajavon Coleman in 2022. This year, Ashley Roman is a likely candidate for the award.  While her athletic prowess is well-documented, she has also been a standout in the classroom with over a 3.8 GPA in Biology, started a Latinx club on Coppin State's campus while serving on the MEAC's Hispanic and Latinx Heritage committee, and has organized several food and supply drives for hurricane and earthquake victims in her native Puerto Rico.
 
LAILA'S COLD AS 'I'CE
Sophomore Laila Ibrahim hit a school-record .923 with 12 kills on 13 swings in a sweep at Penn on Sept. 9, breaking a record held by USA Track & Field Olympian Christina Epps who hit .769 with ten kills at Providence on Sept. 10, 2011. Ibrahim's 12 kills and 13 attempts were both career highs, as were her five blocks against the Quakers. Ibrahim's hitting percentage was the best in the NCAA at the time this season and was the highest in the NCAA since Lauren Matthews of Western Kentucky hit .929 with 13 kills on 14 swings against FIU on Oct. 1, 2021.
 
5 SEASONS OF MEAC SUCCESS
Over the last five seasons, Coppin has been one of the top programs in the MEAC. Since 2018, the Eagles have the second-best record in the league which included the program's first regular season title & winning season in the Spring 2020 campaign. From 2005 to 2017, Coppin won just 45 conference games.
 
MEAC Standings Since 2018
Howard 51-16 (76.1%)
Coppin State 46-19 (70.8%)
 
NON-CONFERENCE PROWESS
Coppin has won a school-record ten non-conference games this season, eclipsing the nine non-conference wins they had last season. CSU still has American and Le Moyne on the schedule this year. Among the highlights last year was a Liberty University Invitational Championship where the Eagles defeated Liberty, Radford and Eastern Michigan. CSU also defeated a trio of SWAC schools at the ISTAP HBCU Challenge in Alabama, as well as George Washington, North Carolina A&T and Bethune-Cookman.
 
TK 3-FOR-3
TaKenya Stafford was impressive in her CSU debut, recording three double-doubles in as many matches at Au-burn's war Eagle Invitational. In the opener against McNeese, Stafford hit .321 with a team-high 15 kills along with 14 digs. She followed up with ten kills and 11 digs against a tough Auburn squad before concluding the weekend with a team-high 12 kills and ten digs. Stafford had three double-doubles as a freshman at Eastern Illinois in 2021.
 
GIGI A SILENT KILLER
While Ammaarah Williams and TaKenya Stafford got much of the hype during the opening weekend at Auburn, Geraldyn Palacios also had an impressive week in the middle. Hitting a team-high .373 with 24 kills in three matches, Palacios recorded a career-high 11 kills on 25 swings to hit .360 against McNeese.  She hit an identical .385 against Auburn and Jacksonville State with a combined 13 kills and seven blocks in the two matches.
 
WELCOME BACK P
Paola Caten returns from injury this season as one of the most all-around players in school-history. An All-Rookie selection in 2019, she made 2nd Team in the Spring 2021 season and first team in Fall 2021. She enters this year just outside Coppin's top ten in kills and digs while ranking eighth in both aces and points. She owns a school-record with 71 attacks in a single match as she recorded a career-high 28 kills along with 16 digs for 30.5 points in a 5-set loss at NC Central. NCCU was led by current CSU player Ammaarah Williams with 19 kills.
 
OUT OF HER SHADOW
For the first time in her collegiate career, Ahzhi Coleman will not have her sister Miajavon Coleman as a team-mate.  While the older Coleman proved to be one of the top players in MEAC history, Ahzhi has made her own legacy at Coppin.  After being an All-Rookie Team selection in 2021 with a team-high 57 blocks to go with 138 kills, she upped her production to 162 kills and 71 blocks while hitting .250.  In just two seasons, she is nearing CSU's top ten in blocks with 131 in her career.
 
BREAKOUT SOPHOMORE YEAR
After seeing limited time as a freshman, Hope Casel stepped up in a big way during the 2022 season. Casel nearly tripled her kills from her freshman season and finished fourth on the team with 11 on the season. She also doubled her blocks from the previous season with 36 on the season.
 
TK OFFERS HOLLYWOOD VIBES
TaKenya Stafford, a transfer from Eastern Illinois, brings a different kind of vibe to the Eagles this season and is expected to be an immediate starter at the pin. Hailing from Los Angeles, TK recorded 76 kills with 177 digs in 15 matches for the Panthers in 2021. Recording 14 kills with 13 digs in her collegiate debut vs. Bellarmine, she had back to-back double-doubles at Belmont later in the season (20k/14d & 14k/10d). She appeared in just two matches last season.
 
PLAYING PROFESSIONALLY
Miajavon Coleman and Yaniris Miller-Green are now playing professionally overseas after concluding their collegiate careers in 2022. They are believed to be the first CSU volleyball players to play professionally. Coleman now plays in Cyprus for Club Salamina while Miller-Green is in Peru with Club De-portivo Soan.
 
NEW TO THE NEST
Including TaKenya Stafford, Coppin welcomes six newcomers to West Baltimore. Divine Muo is a transfer from Stephen F. Austin while Andrea Serrano comes from Hutchinson CC in Kansas. The Eagles also brought in three true freshmen in:
 
Coco Figueroa (Bayamon, P.R.),
Cameron Lucas (Atlanta, Ga.) & Kaliko Schilling (Hauula, Hawaii).
 
PRESEASON PROGNOSTICS
Coppin received nine of 16 first-place votes and finished in a tie for first with Howard in the MEAC Preseason Poll. Ashley Roman, Andrea Tsvetanova and Ammaarah Williams were named to the Preseason All-MEAC Team.
 
2022 RECAP
Coppin won the MEAC Regular Season Championship and advanced to the conference championship game before falling to #3 seed and host Delaware State, 3-1. The Eagles won a school-record 23 matches and earned their first-ever postseason bid where they dropped a five-heartbreaker at Wake Forest in the NIVC First Round.