BALTIMORE – Ashley Roman broke the MEAC record for digs as the Coppin State volleyball team won its fifth-straight match with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-16) sweep of Loyola Maryland on Tuesday night at Reitz Arena. The victory was the Eagles (6-1) first against the Greyhounds since 2014 and their first-ever win on the road.
Roman recorded 18 digs in the first two sets to break the league's mark of 2,066, held by Morgan State's Ashley Preston ('07) who also served as Coppin's head coach from 2012-14. A redshirt senior from Isabela, P.R., Roman now has 2,067 digs in 436 career sets (4.74 per set) which is 43 sets fewer than Preston needed to set the record.
Coppin, behind a match-high 11 kills from
TaKenya Stafford, hit a season-high .323 while holding Loyola to just .056 hitting. Stafford committed just one error and hit .385 on 26 swings along with seven digs. A balanced offense also got nine kills and seven digs from
Ammaarah Williams.
Hope Casel (eight)
Laila Ibrahim (five) and
Geraldyn Palacios (three) combined for 16 kills and each had just one attack error. Palacios led the Eagles with four blocks while Casel and Ibrahim each had three.
Andrea Tsvetanova had a terrific night at setter, tallying 35 assists and six digs while adding an ace while Roman and Williams served up two aces apiece. Roman also became just the fifth CSU player to record at least 100 aces in their career.
Freshman defensive specialist
Coco Figueroa added nine digs, second on the team to Roman.
In the opening set, Coppin began to pull away with a 6-2 run midway through, turning a 9-8 lead into a 15-10 advantage at the media timeout. Loyola pulled to within 16-14 before Casel recorded a kill and forced a Greyhounds error. The hosts once again got to within two points before the Eagles scored seven-straight points to take the frame with Stafford and Palacios responsible for three points each during the stretch.
Casel had back-to-back kills to cap off a 7-0 run by Coppin in the second set, giving the Eagles an 18-11 lead which they held on to the rest of the frame.
The third set was virtually even until the Eagles scored 11 of 13 points to turn a tied score into a 21-12 advantage. Loyola made a last-ditch effort, cutting the lead to 21-15, before Ibrahim, Casel and Stafford recorded kills to finish the sweep.
Coppin will head to the City of Brotherly Love to compete in the Penn Invitational on September 8-9. The Eagles will face Duquesne (12 pm) and Lafayette (3:30 pm) on Friday afternoon before playing the host Quakers at 1:30 pm on Saturday. All three matches will air on ESPN+.
