BOONE, N.C. - The App State volleyball team is headed to Conway, S.C. for a pair of matches against Coastal Carolina on Friday and Saturday in the HTE Center. Friday's match is slated for 6 p.m. and Saturday's is set for 1 p.m. Both will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Last Time Out
App State opened Sun Belt play on Sept. 22 and 23 with a pair of matches against James Madison. The Mountaineers fought point-for-point in Friday and Saturday's matches, but fell, 3-1, in both. Fifth-year senior
McCall Denny notched a pair of double-doubles. Denny has totaled 24 in her career and six during the 2023 campaign. Freshman
Delanie Grevengoed also surpassed 100 career kills during Saturday's match.
On Friday, Denny posted a team-high 12 kills as well as 13 digs against JMU. Recording the team-high in the digs category was sophomore
Kenady Roper, who tallied 16 on the night. Fellow sophomore
Maya Winterhoff totaled seven blocks (one solo, six assists) in addition to six kills. Redshirt freshman
Katie Cruise and senior
Sophie Cain both posted double-digit assists with 16 and 14 respectively. App State managed to outpace JMU in the aces category (5-3) and blocks category (14-12).
Saturday's match saw Denny lead the team in kills (12) and split the team high in the digs category with sophomore
Alyssa McBean. Both posted 11 digs. Junior
Lauren Pledger recorded five blocks and freshman
Ava Leahy went up for four. Cain totaled 13 assists, while Cruise totaled 11.
Ranked Mountaineers
Winterhoff leads the conference in blocks per set (1.38), hitting percentage (.372), and total blocks (69) for the season. In the NCAA, Winterhoff ranks 15th in the total blocks category and 24th in the blocks per set category. Roper ranks fifth in the conference for total aces (22) and sixth for aces per set (0.44) for the season.
App State leads the Sun Belt and ranks 19th in the NCAA for blocks per set (2.72) for the season. In the team total blocks category, App State ranks second in the SBC and 22nd in the NCAA, totaling 136 blocks on the season thus far. The Mountaineers are also ranked third in the SBC in the blocks category for conference only play.
Scouting Coastal Carolina
The Mountaineers last met the Chanticleers a year ago to the day. Hosting Coastal Carolina, App State fell, 3-1, on Sept. 29, 2022, and came up short on Sept. 30, 2022 after a tough five-set battle.
Coastal Carolina is 7-7 (2-0 SBC) this year. The Chanticleers opened conference play with a pair of wins over Georgia State on Sept. 22 and 23. The Chanticleers currently stand second in the SBC East Division after the opening weekend of conference action. In non-conference play, CCU recorded sweeps against Elon (Aug. 25) and Virginia (Sept. 9). Coastal Carolina also posted victories over TCU (Aug. 31) and Princeton (Sept. 8).
Redshirt senior Jasmine Rivest and freshman Jalyn Stout have 185 and 132 kills so far this season, respectively. Rivest also leads the team in aces, serving up 16. Junior Cagla Bengi leads the team in the assists category with 398, while Stout follows with 137. Leading the Chanticleers in the digs category is freshman Sydney Lewis, who has 148 on the year. Stout is second with 111 and Rivest is third with 106. Junior Dilara Unal has totaled a team-high 54 blocks during the 2023 campaign.
ON DECK
The Mountaineers will return to Holmes Convocation Center for a pair of matches against Georgia State on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. and Oct. 7 at 1 p.m. Friday's match will be Pink Day and Saturday's match will be Season Ticket Holder Appreciation and Officials Appreciation Day.
