Shane Darling
9-28-2024
After picking up three straight wins and an overall tournament victory at the University of North Carolina Greensboro last weekend, the Marshall Thundering Herd Volleyball Team trekked to Conway, South Carolina for two games in two days against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
This marked the opening of conference play for both teams, as Marshall posted a 9-4 record, with the Chanticleers posting a 4-7 record. The Coastal Carolina record can be very misleading though, as they have faced off against many large and talented schools, including three top 25 ranked matchups.
CCU comes off a perfect 2023 campaign in the Sun Belt Conference, winning all twelve of their regular season conference matches, and adding a Sun Belt Conference Tournament trophy as well.
Coastal Carolina was able to take care of the Herd quickly, with both contests resulting in sweeps. However, half of the six sets played between the schools were decided by four points or less, with another set being decided by a mere five. So, the Thundering Herd was able to put up a good fight but was never able to get over the hump and defeat the Chanticleers.
Marshall was overpowered by the outstanding Chanticleer offense, being outnumbered in kills by eight in the first matchup, and then by 15 in the second. CCU was also much more efficient on offense, having hitting percentages that were over .150% better than Marshall in both contests.
These games were great battles of two fantastic setters, Marshall’s Brynn Brown and CCU’s Jalyn Stout. Stout was able to get the best of this fight and led the Chanticleers in kills in both games, with a total of 27 over the two days. Stout also accumulated a triple-double and a double-double as well. The Coastal Carolina defense did a great job managing Brown’s attacking skills, limiting her to just six kills in the two games as she was previously averaging nine per contest. However, Brown’s setting skills never wavered, as she held the match-high in assists in both games, with 25 in the first game and 23 in the second.
Despite the losses, the Herd’s freshman standout outside hitter Audrey Geer continued her fantastic play, leading the squad in kills in both games with 13 and 11, while tacking on 12 digs, 2 service aces, and 2 blocks over the two games as well. Thundering Herd middle blocker Beatrice Ciccarelli led the team with seven blocks in the contests.
Marshall Volleyball looks to catch fire again and start picking up conference wins next week as Georgia Southern comes to Huntington for the Herd’s conference home-openers. The first of the two matches will be on Thursday at 5 p.m., with the second being on Friday at 5 p.m.