AKRON, Ohio – Coppin State's volleyball team picked up a big 3-1 (26-24, 25-18, 17-25, 25-17) victory over Valparaiso in its opening match of the Zips Invitational on Thursday night at James Rhodes Arena.  The Eagles improved to 2-5 on the year while the Beacons fell to 4-3.
 
Cherisse Atilano led all players with 14 kills on .256 hitting to go with 13 digs for a double-double.  Freshman Nia Curry added another eight kills, and she was followed up by Ivanna Luna with six, both Kayden Cupid and Deviana Walker with five each and Kendall Minta with three. Atilano and Curry also added an ace each and Cupid hit a match-high .500 with just one error on her eight swings.
 
Setter Eva Rovello also notched a double-double with 35 assists and ten digs to go with four aces and three blocks, quarterbacking the offense to a .205 hitting percentage. 
 
Defensively, Coco Figueroa had a match-high 16 digs while adding an ace and four assists. Cupid led all players with seven blocks despite playing just three sets while Luna added four blocks from the right side in just three sets as well.
 
Coppin held Valpo to just .121 hitting for the match, including a combined .043 in the second and fourth sets.
 
Coppin got to an early 3-0 lead to start the match, but Valparaiso regrouped with a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the set.  With the frame tied at 16, the Beacons ran off seven-straight points to go up 23-16.  The Eagles scored the next two points on Valpo errors before a kill by the Beacons set up set-point at 24-18. 
 
Minta extended the set with a kill as the Eagles went on a thrilling run with Curry at the service line.   Rovello followed Minta with a surprise kill, and Atilano and Minta recorded back-to-back points to pull within 24-23. A bad set by Valpo tied the score before an Atilano kill and a Beacons error clinched the set for CSU.
 
In the second set, Coppin rallied from an early deficit and used a 6-0 run to retake the lead at 13-11 behind a pair of points apiece from Atilano and Cupid. Valpo got within a single point on a pair of occasions, but the Eagles held the Beacons at bay and got a kill from Curry to go up 2-0 in the match.
 
Valpo led from start to finish in the third to force an extra set and looked good early in the fourth with the first two points. Coppin scored the next three points to take its first lead of the frame and began to pull away with four-straight points with three kills as well as an ace by Figueroa. The Beacons got no closer than 8-6 as another five-straight points by the Eagles made it a 20-11 score and Coppin sealed it with kills from Atilano and Luna.
 
CSU returns to action on Friday, September 11 when it faces the host Akron Zips in a 4 pm start on ESPN+.  The Eagles will head to Cleveland State for a 1 pm start Saturday on ESPN+.  An audio stream with play-by-play from Kyle Borg will also be available for each match on www.coppinstatesports.com