Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team secured a second straight Southern State Athletic Conference regular-season championship Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Bethel at Howard Coffin Gym.
The No. 19 Mariners (24-3 overall, 14-1 SSAC) came into the weekend with a two-game lead in the conference standings over both Bethel and Mobile and needed to win just one of its two matches on the final weekend of the season to claim another league title.
Coastal Georgia took care of that Friday with a straight-set victory over the Wildcats (19-11, 11-4) by scores of 25-12, 25-21, 25-18.
"Winning back-to-back regular-season championships is a great step toward accomplishing our season goals," said a happy Coastal Georgia coach Jeff Huebner. "We have our sights set on nationals, making the final site and the final group of 12, but it is important to appreciate the steps along the way."
The Mariners will now attempt to close out a second consecutive perfect season at home on Saturday when they host Martin Methodist for their final match of the regular season before going to Montgomery, Ala., next week where they will go for a second consecutive SSAC tournament crown.
Prior to tomorrow's match, the Mariners will honor the three seniors on this year's team with an on-court ceremony.
"Our seniors have given so much to our program," Huebner said. "Kara Neisen and Jessica Fujimoto are the first players to win over 100 matches in our program, and Emma Anderson's winning percentage while here the last two years is over 90 percent. These are the kids who taught us what it means to be champions, and I am excited to celebrate their illustrious careers with them tomorrow."
On Friday night, the Mariners had seven different attackers record four or more kills as they totaled 41 as a team in 98 attempts while making 11 errors to hit a solid .306 for the match. In the second set, the Mariners scored 20 of their 25 points on kills.
Kyra White and Emma Anderson both paced the offense with nine kills each. Regan Coughlin and Cayley Meiners added five apiece while Allie Shannon, Haley Krotenberg and Neisen all registered four each.
Cayley Meiners notched 30 of the team's 39 assists.
Defensively, the Mariners were even more impressive as they had six different blockers combine for 18 assisted blocks which helped them post 10 total blocks as a team. Shannon recorded five assisted blocks White and Meiners added four each, Coughlin helped on three and Neisen and Krotenberg also had one each. White had the team's only solo block.
Meantime, the Mariners recorded 48 digs while limiting Bethel to 33 kills in 111 attempts. The Wildcats committed 24 attack errors to hit just .081 over the three sets. Alyssa Keeve, who won this week's top defensive player award for the conference, led the team with 15 digs and also was perfect in serve receive in 24 chances.
Also for Coastal Georgia, Neisen notched 10 digs while Coughlin and Anderson finished with seven each.
Bethel's Eloisa Sales, the conference leader for kills, topped her team with 10 kills in the loss. However, she committed seven errors in 32 attacks and finished hitting just .094 on the night.
"We played a great match against the No. 3 team in the conference," Huebner said, summing up the winning effort. "Our attacking has significantly improved. Our tempo on the set and defense to attack in transition was better than it has been.
"When we dial in and are focused on being disciplined on defense and as blockers, we are either going to score a ton of points on the block or the dig. Tonight, it was a bit of both."
Huebner was especially impressed by the performance of Keeve who continues to sparkle in the back row for the Mariners.
"She controlled every aspect of the game from serve receive to defense and free balls," he said. "She is playing at such a high level right now."
