App State volleyball fell 3-0 to Sun Belt East Division leader Coastal Carolina in the Mountaineers’ home finale Saturday. The undefeated Chanticleers gave the Mountaineers their fourth straight loss. 

“We made way too many errors,”  App State head coach Matt Ginipro said. “We’re just way too high error, and the thing is, when we’re not, we are playing good volleyball, we’re just not doing it consistently enough.”

The undefeated Chanticleers opened the match with seven consecutive points to take an early lead. App State pulled within three, but Coastal Carolina used an 8-0 run to take a 16-5 lead, ultimately capturing a 25-15 victory in the first set.

In set two, Coastal Carolina gained a 6-0 lead, but App State chipped away and pulled within two at 10-8. The Chanticleers scored the next four points before the Mountaineers responded with four straight points of their own to trim the lead to 14-12. A kill from junior middle blocker Anna Kincaid pulled the Mountaineers within 21-17, but Coastal Carolina scored the final four points of the set to take a 2-0 lead overall.

In the third and final set, App State used a quick 3-0 spurt to open with an 8-4 lead. The Chanticleers scored the next four points to tie the score at 8-8 only to see the Mountaineers respond with two straight points to go back up 10-8. App State pushed their lead to 15-10, before a 7-0 Coastal Carolina run gave them the lead. App State pulled within a point once more, but fell in the final set 25-20.

“Even though we didn’t play a good set, we held them to a hitting percentage of under 100% in the first set, which against a team like Coastal Carolina is outstanding,” Ginipro said. “We just couldn’t hold up our end offensively, which we started to do in the third set, before they went on a run to close it out”.

App State is now 1-7 on the season, and will play Troy next weekend, followed by a final weekend series against Coastal Carolina that was previously postponed.

“Having some consistency with everything around us would help us,” said Ginipro. “This year has been tough for everybody, regardless of whether it’s concerning sports or not, and though having a lot of inconsistency in everyday life has affected us, we try to figure out how we can be consistent with everything we do.” 

For the Mountaineers, those inconsistencies have included schedule changes, game postponements and delays due to COVID-19. Ginipro expressed that despite the uncertainty they have faced, his team will be well prepared for the Sun Belt Conference tournament, which begins Nov. 18 and concludes on Nov. 22.

“Our main goal is that we want to be playing our best volleyball in three weeks,”  Ginipro said. I don’t care as much about the wins and losses building up to that, I just want us to be getting better every single day.”

App State will compete again next weekend at Troy in the Mountaineers’ final regular season series. The two teams will meet twice Nov. 6 at noon and 7 p.m., followed by another contest Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.