NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State surged ahead in the fourth set before erasing a five-point deficit in the fifth to top the Norfolk State volleyball team by a 3-2 score on Friday evening in a conference matchup at Gill Gymnasium.
 
NSU led 2-1 going into the fourth set after winning the first and third stanzas by 25-18 and 25-16 margins. The Eagles took the second by a 25-21 score and won the fourth set as well by that same tally after subduing a late Spartan rally.
 
But in the fifth, NSU could not hold on to an 11-6 lead as the Spartans fell, 15-13.
 
They lost despite hitting more than 80 points better than the Eagles. A total of 17 service errors by the Spartans and 15 blocks by Coppin State ultimately did NSU in.
 
The Spartans got a big performance from senior Jessica Johnson, who led the team with 21 kills and 13 digs. The loss, though, dropped NSU to 6-14 overall and 4-3 in the MEAC.
 
Coppin State (2-20, 2-6 MEAC) was led by Jasmine Lougheed, who posted team highs of 12 kills and 11 blocks.
 
In the end, several different momentum swings toward the end of the match doomed NSU.
 
The first one began in the fourth set, when CSU jumped ahead by a 9-4 score. Johnson capped a 5-1 run to get the Spartans to within one, but the Eagles won the next six points for a seven-point lead. In between two 4-0 NSU runs, the Eagles also won five of seven points.
 
The second 4-0 spurt, which ended on a kill by senior Sydney Dailey, cut the CSU lead to 21-19. The two teams traded points until the Eagles won the last two to force a fifth set.
 
Still, the Spartans had the upper hand to begin that last stanza. The Eagles called timeout down 7-3, and a few more errors on CSU helped the Spartans build an eventual 11-6 advantage. Lougheed, though, had a couple of kills to help the Eagles get to within one. The Spartans still lead 13-11 after a kill by junior Clarke Tyler, but Guro Froberg had two kills as CSU won the last four points of the match in a stunning late reversal.
 
Tyler ended the night with 10 kills and five blocks. Senior Dominique Parker added nine kills, and sophomore Lexi Brown posted a career-high nine kills as well.
 
NSU was certainly in control for the middle part of the first set. The Eagles actually won five of the first seven points of the match, but the Spartans manhandled them to the tune of a 20-5 run. Tyler had two kills, and Brown had a kill and a block to highlight a 6-0 run that came at the end of the much larger spurt.
 
CSU won seven of the next eight points, although the earlier 12-point deficit proved too much in the end. The Eagles did seize the momentum after NSU built a big lead early in the second set at a time when the Spartans were primed to go up 2-0.
 
Junior Hope Forsythe had three kills during a 7-1 run, which pushed the Spartan advantage to 13-4 in that second set. A 14-5 Eagle run, though, brought them all the way back to 18-18. After NSU won the next three, Coppin State won the last seven points of the second set to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The third set went much more smoothly for NSU, as CSU never won more than two points in a row. The Spartans went ahead 10-5, traded points with the Eagles, and then got a couple of solo blocks during a 5-0 run for a 21-12 lead. Coppin State could do no better than get the lead to single digits before the Eagles performed their magic in the last two sets.
 
CSU hit .097 for the match, while NSU had 56 kills, 11 more than the Eagles, on a .180 attack percentage. Coppin State held a 15-10 edge in blocks, with Angel Jamerson adding six to complement Lougheed. Glorines Rosado led all players with 19 digs.
 
NSU will host its second Baltimore school of the weekend on Sunday when Morgan State comes to town for a 3 p.m. matchup at Gill Gym.