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Jacob Bashura

Outside hitter Lauren Malone makes an entrance prior to their 25-22 win against the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks.

Coastal Carolina University’s women’s volleyball team defeated rival University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Seahawks 3-1 on Sept. 12.  

With this loss to CCU, the Seahawks overall record dropped to 3-7, but elevated Coastal’s record to 5-5.  

On the offensive side, both outside hitter Lauren Malone and opposite hitter Agata Lesiak dominated their positions. Lesiak led the group offensively with 10 kills, two aces and one block. Malone had 10 kills and one block, and middle hitter Valentina Varani had nine kills with three blocks.  

Varani said in a post-game conference the team is still young and has a very big margin for growth. 

“I think that this was a really important win for such a new team that just started to play together,” she said, ”hopefully this was one of many wins.”  

The Chanticleers had to make a few adjustments during the game, Lesiak said, in order to keep up with the Seahawks.   

“We had to make major blocking adjustments after the first set by blocking the line instead of the cross. That also made us change our defensive setup,” she said.   

Varani, Lesiak, Dilara Unal were in sync all game defensively which contributed to their win. Coastal dominated on defense with a total of seven blocks.   

Within a few minutes of the first set, both Coastal and UNCW were set on a score of 5-5 but not for long. After the stalemate between both teams, Coastal offensively exploded, gaining a five-point lead which began with outside hitter Jasmine Rivest.   

In the first set, UNCW went on a 3-0 run, in response to that, the Chants quickly answered by going on a powerful 6-1 run. Rivest had two more kills and one ace, contributing to CCU’s 16-9 lead.   

After a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, Coastal ended up taking the first set, with a block by Lesiak. 

At the start of the second set CCU was trailing UNCW 11-4, forcing Coastal to call a timeout. Coming out of their break, they cut UNCW’s lead down to four points with a new score of 12-8. 

Coastal started off strong in the third set with a 5-2 run, but the Seahawks responded resulting in a 7-5 score.   

Later in the third set, both teams went point for point for the next six. Coastal then took a five point lead but UNCW continued to fight, resulting in a second time out for CCU. 

In the fourth and final set, Coastal and UNCW continued battling point by point until Coastal gained four consecutive points, leading to a 25-22 victory. 

Women’s volleyball will be home on Sept. 29 for a match against Appalachian State University.