PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Ayanna Pharoah had a career-high 12 kills to lead the Coppin State volleyball team to a convincing 3-0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-19) sweep of Niagara University on Saturday afternoon at the Chick-fil-A Robinson Classic, hosted by Duquesne. With the win, CSU improved to 3-4 on the year and increased their Nation's leading neutral-site winning streak to 19 matches.
A junior from Laurel, Md., Pharoah led all players in kills while hitting an impressive .417 with just two errors on 24 swings. Pharoah is having her best collegiate season by far, recording 46 kills in 23 sets while hitting .202 along with nine blocks.
TaKenya Stafford posted another double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs, while hitting .370 with just one error on 27 swings, to go with an ace and three blocks.
Sophia Bertotti Metoyer hit an errorless .692 with nine kills on 13 attempts.
Payton Swinton added six kills, followed by
Gabriela Zuquelo with five kills and seven digs, and
McKenzie Parks with four kills and a team-high four blocks on .375 swinging.
Kahea Carvalho also notched a double-double with 24 assists and ten digs while serving three aces.
Azul Pilahg also saw time at setter with 14 assists and five digs along with two aces as the duo led Coppin to a season-high .303 hitting percentage.
Coco Figueroa led all players with 14 digs as Coppin held Niagara to .136 hitting.
CSU scored the first six points of the match as Carvalho started it off with an ace along with kills from Pharoah and Zuquelo. Niagara was able to crawl its way back into it and even tied the score at 21 but an ace by Zuquelo along with a pair of NU errors gave Coppin its first set point at 24-21. Niagara once again cut the deficit to a single point before Parks and Stafford combined for the block to take the opener.
The first eight points of the second set went to Coppin, with Stafford racking up three kills and a block, and this time the Navy & Gold did not let up. Niagara only got as close as 10-5 as CSU extended its advantage to as many as 23-11 after back-to-back kills from Bertotti Metoyer and Swinton.
Niagara held its only lead of the match at 1-0 in the third set, but it was all Coppin from there. With CSU clinging to a 17-15 lead, Bertotti Metoyer killed the slightest NU momentum with one of her own before freshman
Aya Rawlins served four-straight points which included an ace. CSU clinched the match on kills from Pharoah and freshman
Ivanna Luna.
Coppin hosts Penn in an 11 am Education Day match on Tuesday, September 10.
