Brunswick, Ga. - The College of Coastal Georgia continues to impress early in the 2014 season as the Mariners clicked to a pair of victories Friday on the opening day of the 2014 Mariner Invitational.
Coastal (6-0) remained perfect on the season with a pair of 3-0 victories over Brenau and also Marygrove College.
The Mariners have now won each of their first six matches by 3-0 counts and thus have won 18 consecutive sets to start the season. Coastal Georgia opened the new campaign last weekend with four victories at the Volley in the Mountains tournament hosted by Montreat (N.C.) College. One of those victories was a three-set triumph over No. 10 Lindsey Wilson.
In their first home match of the season, the Mariners made quick work of the Golden Tigers on Friday morning, winning by set scores of 25-8, 25-19, 25-12.
In the fifth and final match of the tournament's opening day, Coastal Georgia closed the wall-to-wall action with a 25-19, 25-11, 25-19 victory over the Mustangs, who made the long trip from Michigan to the Georgia coast to play in the second Mariner Invitational.
With both wins on Friday, the Mariners also actually remained perfect in this tournament. They won all four of their matches last year in the inaugural event to claim the outright championship.
In Friday's opening match against Brenau, the Mariners totaled 43 kills as a team with Emma Anderson pacing the offense with 13 kills. Rachel Amundson finished with seven kills while Allie Shannon added six and Kara Neisen posted five.
Cayley Meiners again set the offense in motion and finished with 31 assists over the three sets.
Defensively, Anderson also shined as she recorded 13 digs to finish the contest with a double-double. Jennifer Johnson followed closely with 12 digs.
Brenau struggled offensively, recording just 18 kills in the match while making 21 errors in 102 total swings. Rachel Adam led the team with five kills.
Coastal Georgia and Brenau will meet again next Friday when the Mariners visit the Tigers to open play in the Southern States Athletic Conference.
In the match against the Mustangs, the Mariners banged out 56 kills while making 16 errors in 109 swings to hit a solid .367 for the match. Three players finished in twin figures for kills as Maddie Bounds led the assault with 15 while Anderson and Neisen both recorded 12 for the winners.
Anderson (.526) and Bounds (.522) both hit over .500 for the match.
Meiners again performed admirably for the Mariners as the team's primary setter, ringing up a whopping 60 kills for the match as she led the Mariners to a new team-record for assists in a three-set match with 62 total. The old high mark was 48 which the Mariners set last year against Loyola.
Meiners' 60 assists were just four off her own individual record of 64 for a match, which she established in Coastal Georgia's five-set loss to Mobile in the semifinals of the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament last season.
Marygrove managed just 23 kills for the match. Ashley Murphy led the team with eight.
Defensively, the Mariners recorded 58 digs, getting 15 from Johnson and 12 from Neisen who finished with a double-double.
Coastal Georgia is back in action on Saturday, facing SSAC rival Faulkner at 2 p.m. and Webber International at 7.
The tournament resumes at 9 a.m. Saturday with the first of five matches at Howard Coffin Gym.
