BALTIMORE – In front of a boisterous Education Day crowd, Coppin State's volleyball team dropped a five-set thriller to Maryland (21-25, 25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 15-10) on Tuesday afternoon at PEC Arena. The Eagles fell to 5-7 on the season while the Terrapins improved to 6-3 overall.
Ivanna Luna led all players with a career-high 15 kills while hitting .323 with two blocks while
TaKenya Stafford notched a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs to go with an ace and three blocks.
Kayden Cupid was also in double figures with ten kills on 17 swings to go with a team-high six blocks.
Ahzhi Coleman followed up with nine kills along with
Cherisse Atilano with seven kills, ten digs and three aces.
Setters
Andrea Cintron (28) and
Andrea Serrano (21) combined for nearly 50 kills as the Eagles hit .187 on the day. Serrano matched Atilano with three aces as Cintron added a pair.
In the back row,
Coco Figueroa, who leads the Nation in total digs, led all players with 21 digs, but Maryland hit .296 for the match to go with 19 total blocks.
How it Happened
- The first set featured 15 ties and seven lead changes with the largest margin coming at the final point.
- Following a CSU timeout at 19-17, the Eagles got kills from Coleman and Luna before a solo block by Cupid to extend the lead to 22-19.
- Maryland called a timeout and scored the next two points before kills by Cupid and Pharoah on either side of an ace by Serrano clinched the opener.
- The Terrapins led from start to finish in the second set to even the match and took the third while holding Coppin to a .059 hitting percentage.
- After the opening point of the fourth, Coppin controlled the frame the rest of the way and led by as many as five at numerous points.
- Maryland scored seven of the first nine points of the decider and the teams switched sides at 8-3 following a CSU service error.
- Coon regrouped with a 5-2 run, featuring back-to-back kills by Stafford to force a timeout at 10-8.
- The teams traded points before back-to-blocks by Maryland forced a CSU timeout at 13-9.
- Coleman came out of the break with a kill before Maryland's Ajack Malual clinched the match with a pair of points.
Up Next: Coppin returns to the court on September 18-19 for the Patriot Invitational where it'll face George Mason at 6 pm Thursday night, followed by Rutgers at 5 pm on Friday. The Eagles will also play Seton Hall at 4 pm on September 20 at Maryland's Schanwald Pavilion at XFINTY Center.
