Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team picked up a 3-1 non-conference win Wednesday night over Webber International at Howard Coffin Gym.
The Mariners took the first set 25-16 before dropping the second set 27-25. Coastal Georgia came back strong in the third and fourth sets, winning by 25-12 and 25-16 to put away the win.
Head coach Jeff Huebner was proud of the win, but he was less than pleased with his team's play, citing the breakdowns in the second set for his frustrations.
"We had a good postgame talk, and hopefully our kids are going to respond," Huebner said after the match. "We had a moment where we had to come together and decide if we're going to do things better to prepare us for the postseason. The good news is hopefully we can grow from this while winning the match."
Coastal Georgia improved to 21-3 overall with the win. The Mariners, ranked No. 20, continue to lead the Southern States Athletic Conference with their 11-1 record.
The Mariners are off this weekend and will return to action next Tuesday when they travel to Brewton-Parker for an SSAC meeting. Coastal Georgia will be at home a week from Saturday when it hosts Brenau for a 2 p.m. league match on Oct. 31.
Against Webber (7-12), the Mariners started fast, easily taking the first set after leading by as much as 10 points in the opening stanza.
With Huebner substituting freely in the second set, the Mariners and Warriors staged a close battle which Webber won 27-25 after the teams were tied nine different times. Coastal Georgia held the largest lead in the set when it led 7-3 early.
"We didn't take care of the ball and we didn't play like a championship team," Huebner said when asked about the second set. "Webber did a good job of keeping the ball alive, but we have to do a better job of playing the long rallies and responding better to adversity. Our leaders need to be better, too."
In the third set which followed the intermission break, the Mariners regained their form and took charge from the outset, scoring the first five points and going on to win by the final 13-point margin. Coastal Georgia led the entire fourth set and scored seven of the last eight points after the Warriors pulled within 18-15.
For the match, the Mariners pounded out 48 kills in 114 attacks and finished hitting .319 as a team.
Kyra White was huge in the middle for the Mariners, finishing with 13 kills in 16 attacks with no errors to hit a whopping .813 on the night. Allie Shannon added 10 kills in 25 attempts, Rachel Amundson had seven kills on 15 swings and Emma Anderson also added seven kills on 26 attacks.
Cayley Meiners assisted on 24 kills for the Mariners.Leah Anderson had 14 assists.
"Kyra was unreal, just awesome," Huebner said. "Cayley did a good job of getting the ball to her. Rachel Amundson played well, too. All three of those kids played with good focus and were fun to watch."
The Mariners finished with 10 aces.
Defensively, the Mariners held Webber to 37 kills in 126 attempts. The Warriors committed 27 hitting errors and would finish hitting .079 for the contest. Kara Neisen and Regan Coughlin led the defense with 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
The Mariners blocked 10 attacks by the Warriors, finishing with 18 assisted blocks.Shannon had six of those.
Huebner also cited the play off the bench by Hailey Krotenberg who had three kills on six swings in the second set.
