DOVER, Del. – TaKenya Stafford and
Gabriela Zuquelo posted double-doubles as the Coppin State volleyball team battled to a 3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 30-28, 19-25, 15-9) victory over Morgan State in the MEAC Quarterfinals on Friday night at Delaware State's Memorial Hall. The second-seeded Eagles improve to 16-15 on the year and will take on either Delaware State or NC Central in tomorrow's semifinals at 8:30 pm.
Stafford tallied 16 kills with 12 digs and added three aces and a block while Zuquelo added 11 kills on .192 hitting to go with 16 digs.
Deviana Walker matched Zuquelo with 11 kills while hitting .231 to go with a pair of blocks.
Ahzhi Coleman followed up with nine kills on 17 attempts and led the Eagles with three blocks.
Sophia Bertotti Metoyer added seven kills with three aces while
Payton Swinton and
Ezgi Kucuk chipped in with three and two kills, respectively.
Azul Pilahg had 27 assists to
Kahea Carvalho's 26 and the duo had eight digs apiece.
Coco Figueroa was credited with 15 digs, five assists and a pair of aces from the libero position.
Coppin was up 11-5 early in the first but Morgan State battled back with nine-straight points to go up 14-11. The Eagles tied the score at 15 and 22 but the Bears scored three-straight points to take the opener.
CSU began to pull away in the second set with a 4-0 run featuring kills from Bertotti Metoyer and Stafford to take a 16-9 lead. Morgan stopped the drought with a kill but got no closer the rest of the frame.
The Eagles once again held the early in the third but were unable to hang on as Morgan battled to take the lead. The Bears held a set-point at 24-22, but the Eagles answered with three-straight to hold their first set point of the frame. MSU was a point away from taking the set at 26-25 and 27-26 but the Eagles got three of the last four points in the service game which included aces from Stafford and Figueroa to go up 2-1 in the match.
Morgan State trailed 11-10 in the fourth after Coppin got back-to-back kills from Bertotti Metoyer and Zuquelo but regrouped with six-straight points to go up 16-11. The Eagles got no closer than a three-point deficit and the match went to a decider.
After falling behind, 2-1, in the fifth, Coppin scored four-straight points on Morgan State errors, including a block from Zuquelo and
McKenzie Parks. The Eagles were the first to eight points as the teams traded sides, and Coppin scored another three-straight to go up 11-6. MSU pulled to within three at 12-9 before Coleman, Zuquelo and Parks finished the Bears off with three-straight kills.
