Baltimore, Md.- The Villanova Wildcats defeated the Coppin State Eagles 3-2 to pick up their first win of the season.

The Wildcats dominated in the first set pulling ahead 15-5 on a service ace by Clare Delaplane.  Villanova then got a pair of kills by Sophia Howling and Maddie Barber to go up 18-8.  The Eagles scored three to make it 19-12 but the Wildcats were able to use kills by Barber, Sophia Howling, Mallory Potts, and Delaplane to win set one 25-16. 

Coppin State took the next two sets.  Set two was tight at the beginning with the Wildcats tying it up 4-4 on a kill by Kathleen Johnson.  Coppin State pulled away on a 11-5 run and the Wildcats tried to answer back going on a 3-0 run of there own but the Eagles won the second set 25-18. 

The third set was close till the end with the lead changing six times throughout.  Howling had back-to-back kills to push Villanova up 5-3 and then Delaplane later in the set tied the game up at 11.  The Eagles were up 23-20 and Villanova answered with a kill by Howling and a block on the next play by Howling and Delaplane.  Coppin State got a kill and then committed a service error to give the Wildcats the serve at 24-23.  The rally ended with an attack error by the Wildcats to give the Eagles the third set 25-23. 

Villanova came rallying back in the fourth set, after being close early the Wildcats began to pull away going up 16-13 midway through.  To close out the set Belle Morgan set up Barber, Delaplane, and Johnson for kills and the Wildcats won the set 25-19 and tied it up at 2 sets a piece.

In the fifth set the game stayed close but the Wildcats were able to hold on for the win.  Villanova went on a 3-0 run to go ahead 8-5 but the Eagles answered back with a run of there own to tie it up.  It was kills by Howling and Morgan that helped pull the Wildcats back up 14-12 but the Eagles got the next point to pull it within one.  It was Morgan who set up Delaplane for the final kill on match point to end the fifth set 15-13.

Barber and Delaplane led Villanova with 14 kills, Howling had 13, and Johnson had five.  Morgan finished with 45 assists and Maddie Schieder had a team high 13 digs. 

Villanova will host Pitt next on Sunday, February 14^th at 1:00 P.M.