QUEENS, N.Y. – Coppin State's volleyball team took a set from St. John's, but fell to the hosts, 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 25-18) at their Red Storm Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena. The Eagles went 2-1 in the season opening tournament, coming in second place to St. John's who went 3-0.
TaKenya Stafford notched her second double-double on the weekend, finishing with a team-high 13 kills on .171 swinging to go with 12 digs and two blocks.
Sophia Bertotti Metoyer and
Ezgi Kucuk had nine kills apiece, followed by
McKenzie Parks with eight,
Gabriela Zuquelo with six,
Ayanna Pharoah with five and
Deviana Walker with a pair. Metoyer led the Eagles with four blocks while Kucuk and Parks had three each. Kucuk hit an impressive .375 on 16 swings for her best outing of the weekend, with Parks hitting .333 followed by Bertotti Metoyer at .292. Zuquelo also played well in the back row, finishing with nine digs and served a pair of aces.
Azul Pilahg and
Kahea Carvalho posted 21 and 20 assists, respectively, while Carvalho recorded eight digs to Pilahg's seven. Pilahg also served a pair of aces. The duo quarterbacked the Eagles offense to a .190 hitting percentage with 52 kills.
Coco Figueroa led Coppin with 16 digs.
St. John's hit .252 for the match compared to Coppin's .190 and recorded 59 kills to the Eag;es' 52. The much taller Red Stom also out blocked Coppin, 11-8.
The Eagles stayed right with St. John's in the opening set, holding a 5-3 lead after back-to-back kills by Bertotti Metoyer and Walker. St. John's regrouped and scored seven of the next eight and held on to a narrow lead throughout. Coppin battled back to within 21-20 after a block by Stafford and Parks but the Red Storm finished with a 4-1 run to take the opener.
St. John's looked to pull away early in the second, taking a 13-5 lead following a 7-1 run. Coppin went on a 5-0 run midway through the frame but got no closer than four points the rest of the way.
CSU turned a 6-5 deficit into a 10-6 lead with Stafford recording three kills and Metoyer adding a kill and a block during the run. St. John's fought back to within two points numerous times before kills by Stafford and Parks put them away, extending the match to the fourth.
The Red Storm held a 6-2 advantage in the fourth and held a narrow lead throughout most of the set. Bertotti Metoyer's kill made it a 20-18 deficit but a service error led to five-straight St. John's points to close the match.
Coppin returns to action on Wednesday, September 4 when it travels to take on American University in a 2:30 pm start on ESPN+.
