Raleigh, NC- On Sunday afternoon at the Summit Hospitality Open in Reynolds Coliseum, the NC State women’s volleyball team (5-3, 0-0) played host to the visiting Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (4-7, 0-0) in the 2nd match of the weekend for the Wolfpack. The Chanticleers came in losing 3 in a row after a 3-1 loss on Saturday to the VCU Rams. The Wolfpack would not be able extend their 4-game winning streak on Sunday after a fabulous effort throughout the match. The Chanticleers proved to have just enough fuel left in their tank to outlast the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack started the first set slowly finding themselves down 8-5 leading to an early timeout. The Wolfpack would respond after the timeout with 3 of the next 4 points in the set to trim the lead to 10-8. The Wolfpack would eventually take the lead at 16-15 after Jada Allen landed a service ace midway through the set. The Chanticleers would be forced to a timeout with the momentum squarely in favor of the Pack. The Wolfpack would utilize the stellar play of Amanda Rice, Ava Brizard, and Courtney Bryant on the outside with several set-changing kills.
The second set began much like the first as the Chanticleers once again forced an early timeout with the Wolfpack trailing 11-7. The Chanticleers used a heavy frontline and attack errors from the Wolfpack to take the early set lead. Coastal Carolina would extend their lead out to 16-11 in the set forcing the second timeout from NC State. The Chanticleers would maintain that lead throughout the set as Coastal Carolina would tie the match at 1 set each with the 25-18 win in the set.
The Chanticleers came out firing in the 3rd set fresh off the momentum gained from their second set win. They would take an early 10-4 lead that led to an early set timeout from NC State. Coastal Carolina would extend the lead out to 15-7 forcing a 2nd timeout. The Chanticleers were completely in control for the entire 3rd set as the they would earn the set win 25-18. The set win that would give Coastal a 2-1 lead in the match. The Wolfpack showed their resilience after getting down 23-12 in the set to make it 24-18, but the Chanticleer lead was too much to overcome.
The Wolfpack would force a 5th set tie break after a highly contested 4th set. Both teams went back and forth throughout the set until the Wolfpack was able to earn the set win 25-22. The Wolfpack took the early lead and would hold off Coastal Carolina late to tie the match at 2-2.
Amanda Rice and Jada Allen would carry the Wolfpack in the 5th set as NC State would take an early 8-6 lead before the timeout. Coastal Carolina would respond with 3 straight points out of the timeout to take back the lead 9-8 forcing an NC State timeout. NC State would respond with more of Amanda Rice but it wasn’t enough from the Wolfpack as they would drop the 5th set 16-14.
Next up for the Wolfpack is a Friday night match with Virginia Tech at 7PM EST.
Post-game Interview with Amanda Rice:
