PHILADELPHIA – Ammaarah Williams crushed a match-high 14 kills as Coppin State's volleyball team won its sixth-straight match with a 3-0 sweep of Lafayette (25-20, 25-20, 25-18) at the Penn Invitational on Friday afternoon at The Palestra. The Eagles are now 7-1 on the season after defeating the Leopards for the first time since the 2012 season.
A graduate student from Cleveland, Ohio, Williams led all players in kills while hitting .171 to go with four digs.
TaKenya Stafford and
Geraldyn Palacios combined for 17 kills while hitting nearly .400 followed by
Hope Casel and
Laila Ibrahim with four kills apiece. Stafford also contributed with eight digs and a pair of aces while Palacios, Ibrahim and
Paola Caten had two blocks apiece.
Andrea Tsvetanova assisted on 38 of the team's 40 kills while adding an ace, a block and five digs as Coppin outhit Lafayette, .235 to .133.
Ashley Roman, who recently became the MEAC all-time leader in digs, led all players with 22 along with two aces on the day while freshman
Coco Figueroa recorded ten digs.
Andrea Serrano also played a pivotal role with three aces.
First Set
- Coppin made the first big push of the match with an early 5-0 run, highlighted by a pair of Serrano aces to go up, 7-4.
- The Eagles scored another five-straight a couple rallies later, punctuated by a pair of kills from Williams to extend their advantage to 13-6.
- Lafayette got as close as 22-20 before Williams put the hammer down with three-straight kills.
Second Set
- A 7-1 run by Coppin turned a 7-7 tie into a 14-8 lead as four different Eagles recorded kills during the run.
- CSU maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way as Lafayette got no closer than three points.
Third Set
- Coppin led from start to finish and got out quickly with a pair of 3-0 runs to take a 7-2 lead.
- Lafayette pulled to within two points on three separate occasions before putting the match away with six of the last eight points.
Up Next: Coppin returns to action on Saturday, September 9 when it takes on Penn in a 11:00 am start.
