Courtesy of Steven Kramer, Coppin State Athletics
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Coppin State’s volleyball team drew Wake Forest in the First Round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, it was announced by Triple Crown Sports on Sunday evening. The Eagles earned their first-ever postseason bid by earning the MEAC’s automatic berth by winning the league’s regular season title.
The first-round matchup against the Demon Deacons is set for Friday, December 2 at 6:00 pm. The Deacs finished the season at 16-13 overall while tallying an 8-10 record in the ACC. On the other side of the four-team pod in Winston Salem, N.C., is Davidson from the Atlantic 10 and North Dakota State of the Summit League.
Coming into the Tournament with a 23-10 overall record, Coppin won its second regular season championship in the last three seasons and posted its third-straight, and third-ever winning season. The Eagles are led by MEAC Co-Setter of the Year Andrea Tsvetanova and Defensive Player of the Year Ashley Roman while graduate students Miajavon Coleman and Ammaarah Williams also earned First Team All-Conference honors.
Head Coach Tim Walsh is in his sixth season at Coppin and was named the MEAC Coach of the Year for the second time in the last three seasons. Walsh is the winningest coach in program-history with 79 victories and he now has 104 wins in his career.
Wake Forest is an impressive hitting team, hitting .224 on the season while ranking second in the ACC with 14.64 digs per set. Emma Farrell led the league with 4.41 digs per set while four players put up at least two kills per set. Paige Crawford has a team-high 302 kills (3.25 per set) with Peyton Suess (255 kills; 2.52 per set) Olivia Franke (210; 2.02 per set), Ashley Slater (138; 2.26 per set) and Emmy Ogogor (194; 1.87 per set) follow. Ogogor and Franke average a full block per set while the offense boasts a 6-2 ran by Andrea Fuentes (6.57 assists/set) and Rian Baker (6.28 assists/set).
