It didn't take long for the new College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team to crack into the win column. The Mariners picked up the first win in program history in just their second match, knocking off Florida Memorial Saturday in Ave Maria, Fla., in three sets by scores of 25-14, 25-17 and 25-15.
The Mariners then proceeded to notch victory No. 2 right after that with another three-set triumph over Ave Maria University, winning 25-21, 25-22, 25-20. Coastal Georgia played its first official match on Friday night at Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, where the team lost in three sets to the home team which came into this season ranked eighth in the first National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics poll for the year.
"It was really nice," said Coastal Georgia coach Jeff Huebner of recording the first win in school history in just the team's second match. "We had fans watching us from Florida and also Illinois. We played average. The match had both good and bad to it, but it was obvious we were the better team. We were in control most of the way."
Huebner is a former high school and club program coach in Illinois. Several players on Coastal Georgia's first team are also from Illinois. One of those is freshman hitter Holly Hammer who led the Mariners with 11 kills in the victory over Florida Memorial. Maggie Bee, a freshman setter who also calls Illinois home, paced the Mariners with 18 assists and also delivered four serving aces. With Bee serving, the Mariners closed out their victory in the second set on a 9-1 run.
Also in the win, Georgia Beck had 11 kills. Amanda Kline had five kills and no errors in 11 attempts for a sparkling .490 hitting percentage. Former Glynn Academy standout Kaye Proctor had 15 digs for Coastal Georgia while Beck and Hammer finished with 12 each.
With their double-digit totals for kills and digs, Hammer and Beck had the first double-double performances in program history. Another interesting note to the match was that Al Aplington was credited with the first-ever official block in program history.
Against AMU, the Mariners cranked up their offensive attack and recorded 43 kills. Hammer again led the way with 12, Beck followed with 10, Kaitlyn Duckworth just missed double-digits with nine, Kline had five again and Linsey Clark had four.
Bee again had a great game as the setter, finishing with 36 assists for Coastal Georgia. She also notched 22 digs for the Mariners. Hammer finished with 18 digs and Proctor dug 14 balls.
"All the sets were pretty tight, but we were in control most of the time," Huebner said. "They only had 24 kills, so I was proud of our defense. We had 75 digs as a team. Our outside hitters were awesome, too. Georgia only had two errors and Holly only had one."
In the second set, the Mariners trailed 22-19, but scored the final six points of the contest with Kline serving and recording three aces in the run. "That momentum carried into the third set," Huebner noted.
The Mariners will now have a week to prepare for their home opener against Southeastern University on Saturday, Sept. 3. The match is set for a 2 p.m. start at Howard Coffin Gym on the Coastal Georgia campus.
"We've obviously made progress in practice recently and we made progress this weekend," Huebner said as he summed up the opening three matches "There are definitely still things we need to work on, but it was definitely a good first week of volleyball. Our players have put in a lot of hard work and you're starting to see it come to fruition."
