Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State handed the Norfolk State volleyball team a 3-0 loss on Friday night at Joseph Echols Hall in both teams' MEAC season opener.
 
The Spartans put up a fight in the third set, ultimately falling by a 26-24 score as the Eagles completed the sweep. CSU had a much easier time in the first two sets, winning by margins of 25-16 and 25-19.
 
Coppin State hit .234 for the match and held NSU to a .102 attack percentage. The Spartans were done in partly because of nine more attack errors and CSU's 9-2 edge in blocks.
 
Sophomore Hope Forsythe finished with 11 kills to pace NSU (1-13, 0-1 MEAC), including six kills in the final set.
 
Cindy Okpegbue added a team-high nine kills to lead the way for Coppin State (4-8, 1-0).
 
After having to fight through numerous 3- and 4-0 runs by CSU in the first two sets, the Spartans turned right around and had to do the same in the third. The Spartans led by a 6-5 score after a service ace from Forsythe, but Coppin State won the next three points and then broke a 9-9 tie by winning six straight.
 
NSU fought back, thanks at first to three kills by senior Angie Darcus in a five-serve span and then later on back-to-back kills by Forsythe and junior Dominique Parker. That cut the deficit to one, and later the Spartans tied it up at 22-22 after a service error on CSU and Forsythe's kill. She and fellow sophomore Clarke Tyler threw down kills to tie the score two more times, including the latter at 24-all, but a CSU kill and an error on NSU gave the Eagles the match win.
 
Darcus ended the night with nine kills and six digs while hitting .208.
 
After CSU won three straight points early in the first set, Parker tied it at 5-5 on her first kill of the night. The Spartans, however, had to use both of their timeouts during spurts of 3-0 and 5-0 for CSU. Two more 3-0 runs pushed the lead to as much as nine for the Eagles.
 
Senior Janay Frazier hit a service ace, and an error on CSU gave the Spartans a 6-3 lead in the second set, but the Eagles answered a short time later with a 10-3 run for a 14-10 lead. After NSU called timeout, Parker was able to cut the CSU lead to two, but the Eagles began to surge ahead after twice winning three points in a row. After the last of those, CSU found itself up 21-15, and the teams traded points the rest of the set.
 
Senior setter Darcy Moore added 29 assists and seven digs, while Frazier led all players with 11 digs.
 
Kendra Ireigbe tallied six kills and six blocks for the Eagles, who also got solid outings from Denali Sturgeon (seven kills, .400 attack percentage) and Samantha Polk (seven kills).
 
The Spartans will host Morgan State on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Echols Hall.