Volleyball Takes Five-Match Winning Streak to Penn Invitational

PHILADELPHIA - Winners of five-straight, the Coppin State volleyball team competes at the Penn Invitational Presented by Sheraton on September 8-9. The Eagles will face Lafayette on Friday afternoon, followed by the host Quakers on Saturday. Both matches will air on ESPN+
 
LAST TIME OUT
Coppin swept Loyola Maryland on Tuesday night with TaKenya Stafford leading the way with 11 kills as the Eagles hit a season-high .323. Ashley Roman recorded 18 digs and broke the MEAC record in the category.
 
The 'A' Team Wins WEEKLY AWARDS
'A'shley Roman, 'A'ndrea Tsvetanova and 'A'mmaarah Williams all received MEAC Weekly awards on Monday 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 15 times and Tsvetanova is a 11x Setter of the Week.
 
scouting the field
LAFAYETTE
The Leopards stand at 2-2 on the season with victories over Siena and Saint Peter's with tough losses to Northeastern and Bryant. Abby Nieporte is one of the top players nationally serving and leads the team with 38 kills, followed by a trio  of players at over 2 kills/set in Gracie Gibson, Ally Feczko and Carol Ulichney. They ran a 6-2 formation with Anna Van Wyk and Alyssa Vitale running the offense. Five players average over two digs/sets by Katie Weston and Carson Grace Toomer. Feczko and Van Wyk are also valuable on the defensive side of the ball with Hannah Ehrich-Pollock averaging a block/set.
 
PENN
The Quakers are currently 0-4 but just took Villanova to five sets on Wednesday night. Zada Sanger averages nearly four kills/set, followed by Feyi Ogunlari at 2.50 kills/set. Penn also runs a two-setter formation with Jordan Armstrong and Anna Shohfi. Elsa McDermott and Bella Rittenberg lead the way in the back row while Zanger, Claire Deller and Jalen Tennyson have a team-high six blocks apiece. Sanger will be all over the court for the Quakers.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Coppin is 1-10 all-time against Lafayette with the lone winning coming in 2012. The Eagles fell most recently in both 2017 (3-1) and 2018 (3-2).
 
CSU fell to Penn in its only meeting, 3-1 on September 4, 2021.
 
vs. Lafayette (1-10)
8/31/18   A       L, 3-2
10/8/17   H       L, 3-1
9/15/12   A      W, 3-2
9/9/11     N       L, 3-2
9/8/10     A       L, 3-1
9/9/09     H       L, 3-0
9/3/08     A       L, 3-0
 
vs. Penn (0-1)
9/4/21  A                    L, 3-1
 
Queen of Aces
After leading the Nation in aces & aces/set last year, Andrea Tsvetanova is the CSU 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 (Coppin)           0.86
2. Abby Nieporte (Lafayette)              0.74
 
2022 NCAA Service Aces
1. Tsvetanova (Coppin)           114
2. Mia Wesley (Southern Miss.)         77
 
NCAA Active Career Aces
1. Brigitta Petrenko (Louisville)    210 (407g)
2. Carissa Barnes (Texas)         180 (415g)
3. Tsvetanova (Coppin)          177 (258g)
 
NCAA Active Aces/Set (min. 100 SA)
1. Tsvetanova (Coppin)                       0.686
2. Brigitta Petrenko (Louisville)           0.516
 
HISTORY MADE 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 October 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 it's been awarded.  Roman is among the NCAA active leaders in digs with a MEAC record, 2,067, and is currently ranked 5th among active players. Her 4.74 digs/set is also the 8th most amongst the active players with at least 1,500 digs.
 
NCAA Active Career Digs
1. Tara Beilsmith (SEMO)        2,330
2. Carissa Barnes (Texas)        2,249
3. Rocio Morio (N. Florida)     2,245
4. Ellie Snook (USC)... 2,197
5. Ashley Roman (Coppin)     2,067
6. Kylie Murr (Minnesota)      2,007
 
TK 3-FOR-3
TaKenya Stafford was impressive in her CSU debut, recording three double-doubles in as many matches at Auburn'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 teammate.  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 increased 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.
 
TOWERS IN THE MIDDLE
Geraldyn Palacios returns to her starting spot at middle blocker after ranking among the league-leaders in blocks and hitting percentage last season. With the graduation of Yaniris Miller-Green, who is now playing professionally, Coppin expects sophomore Laila Ibrahim to take a major step up in playing time. Ibrahim flashed last season with three blocks at Virginia Tech.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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...................    49-16 (75.4%)
Coppin State...........    44-19 (69.8%)
 
NON-CONFERENCE PROWESS
Last season, Coppin State won a school-record nine matches in non-conference play before starting MEAC competition. Among the highlights was the 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 & Bethune-Cookman.
 
PLAYING PROFESSIONALLY
Miajavon Coleman and Yaniris Miller-Green are now playing professionally overseas after concluding their collegiate careers in 2022. They are the first two CSU volleyball players who played for Coach Walsh that signed professional contracts. Coleman now plays in Cyprus for Club Salamina while Miller-Green is in Peru with Club Deportivo Soan.
 
STEPPING UP VS. POWER 5
Despite being 0-11 all-time against Power 5 Conference schools, Coppin has recently played very well against those programs.  In the NIVC Tournament last year, the Eagles took Wake Forest to five sets which was the first time CSU won a set against a Power 5 school. Coppin also took a set from Auburn last weekend, the first time that CSU has done so against an SEC school.
 
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.