BALTIMORE – Coppin State's volleyball team won its 13
th straight home match with a hard-fought, 3-1 (25-14, 28-26, 24-26, 30-28) victory over crosstown rival Morgan State on Friday night at PEC Arena. The Eagles improved to 10-13 overall and 6-1 in the MEAC.
With four players recording double-digit kills, Coppin recorded a season-high 73 kills on the night, setting a school-record for kills in a four-set match. The old mark of 71 was set back on October 4, 2003, in a win against Delaware State. CSU also broke the CSU single-match record for assists in a four-set match with 70, eclipsing the old mark of 61 in a win against the Hornets on October 30, 2015.
TaKenya Stafford led the way with a match-high 18 kills while adding 18 digs for a double-double. The redshirt junior from Los Angeles, Calif., also had a pair of aces and a block while hitting .170.
Ezgi Kucuk saw her most extensive playing time of the season, which paid dividends as she slammed a career-high 15 kills on .333 hitting. She also came up big down the stretch with a pair of blocks.
Sophia Bertotti Metoyer had a very efficient night with 14 kills on .367 hitting, followed by
Deviana Walker with 12 kills while hitting .435. Walker matched Kucuk with a pair of blocks as well.
McKenzie Parks added six kills while blocking a team-high six with
Payton Swinton chipping in with five kills.
Setters
Kahea Carvalho and
Azul Pilahg both recorded career-highs with 33 and 30 assists, respectively, with Pilahg recording seven digs. Carvalho added three kills on the offensive end on four attempts.
In the back row,
Coco Figueroa had a career-high 22 to lead all players and
Alessia Gallo had another 15 to go with three aces.
Coppin outhit Morgan, .279 to .231 with the Bears coming away with 16 total blocks.
After both teams went on long runs to open the first set, Coppin pulled away with a 6-1 run, with three kills from Stafford, to open a 17-10 lead. The final three points of the frame came in the service game with Gallo closing it out with back-to-back aces.
Morgan held a 21-17 lead in the second set before the Eagles ran off six-straight points with Stafford and Swinton recording a pair of kills apiece. The Bears regained the lead at 24-23 and held set-points at 25-24 and 26-25 before Walker sandwiched a Bertotti Metoyer kill with two of her own to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. The second set featured 12 ties and five lead changes.
Coppin looked like it would sweep Morgan after holding a 23-19 advantage but the Bears regrouped with five-straight points which included a pair of blocks. Walker recorded a kill to tie it up before Morgan forced a fourth set with a kill and a CSU attack error. With 15 ties and seven lead changes, the Eagles ran out of substitutions midway through the frame.
The Eagles looked to be in control of the fourth, but the Bears never went away tying the score eight times without ever holding the lead. With the score tied at 21 after a 3-0 run by Morgan, neither team put together back-to-back points until Kucuk recorded a kill followed by a block from Parks and Swinton to finish the match. Kucuk hit a whopping .615 with eight kills on 13 swings in the set.
Coppin returns to action on Friday, October 25 when it travels to play Delaware State before returning home two nights later to face Maryland Eastern Shore on October 27 on ESPN+.
