Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team had never taken the court as a ranked team until Tuesday night.
The Mariners got that opportunity for the first time against Brewton-Parker in a Southern States Athletic Conference matchup at Howard Coffin Gym after learning just prior to the match that they were No. 25 in this week's NAIA national poll.
The Mariners then proceeded to make quick work of the struggling Barons, winning 3-0 on Faculty and Staff Night to move to 13-0 overall and 5-0 in the conference. Brewton-Parker fell to 1-8 with the loss and 0-5 in league action.
Following their 10th three-set win of the season, the Coastal Georgia players had the opportunity to talk about earning their first-ever ranking after receiving votes for the national poll for the first time last week.
"It's just cool," said senior defensive specialist Kansas Robison. "I guess elated would be the best way to describe how I feel. Personally, I think we just always knew in the back of our heads we'd be ranked at some point, it was just a matter of when."
Robison is one of three seniors on this year's team who was on the first Coastal Georgia team four years ago. The others are Holly Hammer and Amanda Kline.
The ranking is definitely a dream-come-true for the trio.
"It's such a great feeling," Kline said. "(Coastal Georgia head coach Jeff Huebner) has told us all along this would happen, and we all knew it would. I just didn't think it would actually be while we are still here. So, it's exciting for us to be a part of it."
Hammer added that it's gratifying for the seniors to have the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor after investing so much time and energy into helping the program build toward this moment from the very beginning.
"The biggest thing for me is just knowing all the little things that we've done and been through that this team doesn't even know about," said Hammer, the team captain. "When you talk about laying the foundation for the program, we didn't just lay the volleyball foundation. We also laid the life and character foundation, too."
Hammer said it's also been neat to see the school and community get into volleyball and hopes to see the excitement created by the program build throughout the remainder of the season.
"It's cool that people care about volleyball now," she said.
Huebner said the players, particularly the seniors who have been with the program from day one, deserve a ton of credit for helping the Mariners reach the national rankings at this juncture of the program's evolution.
"It's awesome. It's hard to be ranked in team sports in general, but it's really difficult to do in volleyball in the Southeast," the coach said. "Volleyball has been a bigger deal in the Midwest and on the West Coast for a lot longer, so for us to be in that conversation so quickly says a lot about the work ethic of our kids and the time they've put in to help us get this opportunity."
On Tuesday, the Mariners needed very little time to earn the win over the Barons. They won the first two sets by 25-5 and finished out the match with a 25-10 triumph in the third set.
The Mariners banged out 37 kills in 62 swings while hitting .435 as a team. All but one player who had at least one attack in the match finished with a kill for Coastal Georgia. Rachel Amundson was the team's kill leader with eight.
Coastal Georgia served 18 aces in the match with Cayley Meiners recording a team-high five.
The Barons could manage just five kills in 58 attempts. They committed 18 attack errors in the three sets and finished with a negative hitting percentage.
Jessica Fujimoto led the Mariners with eight digs.
With the win, the Mariners continued their longest-ever winning streak.
Prior to the match, several faculty and staff members at the school participated in a ceremonial first serve.
Coastal Georgia will hit the road this weekend for SSAC matches Friday at Belhaven and Saturday at Faulkner.
