CCU

Volleyball to Host Big South Quarterfinals Against Charleston Southern

       

Volleyball to Host Big South Quarterfinals Against Charleston Southern

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Second seeded Coastal Carolina's volleyball will play host to the First Round of the Big South Volleyball Tournament as they welcome in seventh seeded Charleston Southern for a match at 7 p.m. Coastal secured the second seed by defeating Charleston Southern last Friday, Nov. 16, 3-1 to lock up a tie for second place in the conference. The winner of this game will be traveling to Asheville to play in the Semifinals against either third seed Birmingham-Southern or second seed High Point University on Saturday, Nov. 20. The championship will be played on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. and will get the conferences automatic bid into the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

Scouting Charleston Southern

Charleston Southern (11-15, 4-10 Big South) comes into this Big South Quarterfinal match-up having lost its game last week to Coastal in four sets. Leading the charge for CSU was junior Victoria Owens, who had team highs of 16 kills and 18 digs. Owens is also the team-leader with 315 kills this season. She is one of five Bucs that have totaled triple figure kill totals this season. Junior setter Katie O’Riordan is the team-leader with 779 assists. Sophomore Olivia Terzo is the team-leader with 261 digs. The Buccaneers have had their difficulties on the road with a 3-9 record. Coastal defeated Charleston Southern twice earlier this season, both by counts of 3-1. CCU also owns a career record of 24-13 against the Bucs.

Last Week Recap

Charleston Southern

Junior Katherine Jensen had a career-high 32 digs and added 21 kills and sophomore Alicia Meyers had 18 kills as the Coastal Carolina University volleyball team (19-9, 9-5 Big South) defeated Charleston Southern University (10-15, 4-10 Big South) 3-1 Nov. 12, at Kimbel Arena in Conway, S.C. Game scores were 30-22, 22-30, 30-21, 30-26. Coastal now has won four straight matches heading into the Big South Tournament on Tuesday, Nov, 16. Jensen’s 32 digs was a team high for the season, beating the old mark by seven digs. Sophomore Kristin Rinne had 16 digs while Jennifer Hampton added 15. Hampton also had 54 assists on the night. The Lady Chants totaled 12 blocks, eight of them coming from junior Krista Kimble.

Deja Vu

This is the second time Coastal will be playing Charleston Southern in less than a week. Dating back to the 2001 season Coastal has won nine consecutive match over Charleston Southern. In that period of time CCU has won 27 games to six for Charleston Southern. The Lady Chanticleers have knocked the Buccaneers out of the Big South Tournament in each of the last two seasons.

Historic Victory

Coastal Volleyball Coach Kristen Bauer recorded her 100th career win with the Chanticleers victory on Saturday afternoon over Georgia State. Bauer joins former Chants Coach Tammi McCaudy-Lee as the only Chanticleers volleyball coaches to reach the milestone mark. Bauer has won over twenty games in each of the past two seasons and is closing in on the mark this season, with 16 victories.

Honors A Plenty

Laura Obert and Jennifer Hampton were both named to the Chanticleer Classic All-Tournament Team as they led Coastal to a second place finish. Previously Katherine Jensen and Laura Obert were both named to the All-Big Orange Bash Team as they led Coastal to a second place finish. In the first tournament of the season Katherine Jensen and Jennifer Hampton were both named to the Dayton Invitational All-Tournament team for their outstanding performances as Coastal ended up taking second place there as well.

Players of the Week

Junior Katherine Jensen and freshman Nakia Thompson became the latest two Lady Chanticleers honored by the Big South Conference. Jensen captured Big South Volleyball Player of the Week honors for the week of Nov. 8th. In Coastal’s two wins over Radford and Liberty, Jensen recorded 37 kills and 31 digs. Thompson in the win against Radford recorded a career best eight kills and an amazing .889 hitting percentage.She followed it up with five kills in the win over Liberty. She was award with the Big South Freshman of the Week honors for her outstanding performances.

Jennifer Hampton was honored as the Big South Player of the Week for the week ending, October 10. Hampton had a great game, setting a career-high and the conference-high for the season with 69 assists. For the week Hampton tallied 113 assists and 28 digs. This is the second time has been awarded by the Big South as Player of the Week. Hampton previously was honored as the Co-Player of the Week in the Big South Conference for Sept. 13-20. Hampton helped Coastal upset NC State with a 61-assist,15-dig effort at the Chanticleer Classic. For the week she tallied 17 kills, 161 assists and 57 digs with a .288 hitting percentage.

Defense Counts

Coastal is currently ranked second in the Big South Conference in opponent hitting percentage (.169) and third in kills per game at 15.28. CCU also is second in the conference as it averages better than 16 digs per game (16.99) and second at more than two blocks a game (2.31). The Chants are fourth in hitting percentage (.220) and fourth in assists (13.55).

Individual Leaders

Coastal’s Laura Obert is among the top four in conference with a hitting percentage of .289. Jennifer Hampton is fourth in the conference in assists with 11.58 per match. Coastal boasts the third leading blocker in the conference in Krista Kimble who averages 1.11 blocks per game. Teammate Laura Obert is also among the top five in blocks with 1.01 per game.

The Kill Shot

CCU’s Katherine Jensen leads the conference in kills and one of only four women averaging better than four kills per game (4.48). Jensen has recorded seven matches of 20 or more kills, which is tied for second in the conference.

Helping Out

Setter Jennifer Hampton is one of only five woman to record 60 assists in a match, which she has done twice. Hampton is one of only three women this year to record a triple-double (43 assists ,13 digs and 10 kills vs. Dayton, Sept. 3rd)

Career Leaders

Jennifer Hampton has now passed Colette Pawlyk to become the All-Time Assist Leader with 4009 career assists. An impressive total for the junior that has led CCU to a 61-31 record in her three years as the starting setter.

After only a little over a year of playing at Coastal, Katherine Jensen has now passed Sandy Slepski for 8th on Coastal’s all-time kill list with 927 kills.

Pre-Season Choice for Second

Coastal Carolina’s volleyball team received 103 points including two first-place votes, to grab the second spot in the Big South Conference’s annual preseason poll on August 18. The Chants are coming off a season where they finished 21-11 overall, including 11-3 in the Big South Conference, and advanced to the Big South Tournament Semi-finals. Coastal is bringing back five starters from last season including the libero.

Up Next

CCU if they can defeat Charleston Southern in the Big South Quarterfinals, will be traveling to UNC Asheville to participate against Birmingham-Southern or High Point on Saturday, Nov. 20, in the Big South Semifinals.