The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team won two of three matches this past weekend during a road trip to Florida. On Friday, the Mariners defeated Northwood 25-23, 15-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-11 in West Palm Beach. On Saturday, Coastal Georgia split a pair of matches against St. Thomas, losing the opening match 22-25, 13-25, 25-18, 18-25 and winning the second contest 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 16-25, 15-9.
The win over Northwood on Friday was the seventh in a row for the Mariners. The match also marked the first time in team history the Mariners played a five-set match. Coastal Georgia got down early in each of the first four sets, but rallied for wins in the first and third frames. In the first set, the Mariners fell behind 19-11 but stormed back for the win. In the third set, they were down 17-12, but closed with a 13-2 run to win.
Holly Hammer had a monstrous game for the Mariners as she finished with 10 kills, 19 digs, four aces and two blocks. Valerie Cutrone also helped pace the Mariners with 10 kills in 23 swings and also recorded three blocks. Maggie Bee totaled 38 assists and Kansas Robison was solid in the back row with 21 digs. Also for Coastal Georgia, Amanda Kline notched eight kills and four blocks.
In the first match Saturday against St. Thomas, the Mariners suffered through a lackluster outing and saw their win streak come to an end. They jumped in front 7-0 in the opening set and led 14-7, but saw the home team rally from behind to take the set 25-22 and set the tone for the rest of the match. In the four sets, Coastal Georgia made 40 errors with 10 in each set. There was a bright spot in the loss, though, as Hammer recorded 14 kills and became the first Mariner to surpass 100 kills in this inaugural season.
In the second match against St. Thomas, the Mariners weren't exactly sharp as they won the first two sets and then proceeded to drop the next two before pulling out the 15-9 win in the decisive fifth set to earn the victory. In the match, the Mariners had four blocks in the opening set and five more in the second frame to set a new team record for blocks in a set.
Hammer again led the offensive attack. She banged out a new match-record 19 kills for the Mariners and also finished with 13 digs to complete a double-double performance. Coastal also had other outstanding individual efforts from several players. Kelsey Behrend pounded out 15 kills, Valerie Cutrone added nine kills and two blocks and Robison finished with 32 digs.
During the match, Bee, who finished with 43 assists, banged her head while falling on the floor and had to leave the floor in the fourth set, forcing the Mariners to finish out the match with a jumbled lineup.
Though glad to bring home the two wins, Coastal Georgia coach Jeff Huebner was far from pleased with his team's performance on the weekend trip. "We are going into the fire in the next three weeks, and if we don't commit ourselves to getting better, we'll end up learning the hard way," he said.
The Mariners will return to the road on Friday for a quartet of matches this weekend in Daytona Beach, Fla. They will face off against Savannah College of Art and Design and Olivet Nazarene on Friday before matching up against Indiana Tech and Shorter on Saturday.
