Sioux City, Iowa – The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team made history Wednesday afternoon with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Georgetown (Ky.) in its second pool play match at the final site of the NAIA Volleyball National Championship.

The win was the first-ever for the Mariners at the final site, and it came in grand fashion, too.

Coastal Georgia (30-9) lost the first two sets and managed to survive four match points in the third set before winning 31-29 to stay alive in the match.

The Mariners would then win both the fourth and fifth sets to take the match. Coastal Georgia had been 0-7 at the final site prior to Wednesday, losing all three of its pool matches in its previous two trips to Sioux City the last two seasons and also its opening match this year on Tuesday against No. 6 Eastern Oregon.

"It's like it's not real to us right now. It's so awesome," said Coastal Georgia senior outside hitter Rachel Amundson when reached by phone after the huge win. "We're all just so excited that we made history again and now have another 30-win season."

First-year Coastal Georgia head coach Leah Mihm was happy for her players especially those who were on the team the last two years and got to taste victory at the final site for the first time.

"This was our focus from day one," she said. "Our goal was to win a match out here. We wanted to make it here and compete when we got here."

Now, the goal changes for the Mariners as the victory over the No. 11 Tigers (29-9) sets up a high-stakes meeting Thursday against Montana Tech in the third and final pool-play contest for both squads.

With both Coastal Georgia and the No. 24 Orediggers (24-10) having 1-1 records, the winner is assured of advancing to the 16-team tournament bracket to continue competing for this year's national championship.

Both teams defeated Georgetown while losing to Eastern Oregon which will finish out pool play Thursday against Georgetown and will advance to the single-elimination bracket regardless of the final outcome. Georgetown also has no chance to advance even it wins tomorrow's match.

Coastal Georgia and the Diggers will square of at 2 p.m. Thursday at Tyson Events Center.

The Coastal Georgia athletic department will show the live video stream on the NAIA Network in Coffin Room 219 as previously advertised. All students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the watch party and cheer on the Mariners.

"We all just have to be mentally prepared," Mihm said, looking toward the match."Every touch is important. Everyone needs to bring their best game."

Coastal Georgia didn't have its best stuff in the first two sets against Georgetown as it fell 25-16 and 25-22.

"It was just mental errors," Mihm said, "and it was like there was no sense of urgency. People woke up in the third set."

The third frame was close all the way as the Mariners actually held the largest lead at three points three different times. Once the score was tied at 12-12 neither team led by more than two the rest of the way.

After the score was tied 23-all, the Tigers had four chances to win after going ahead, but the Mariners tied the score each time. Coastal Georgia would then get two match points at 28-27 and also 29-28, but the Tigers would stay alive by tying the score.

Finally, though, the Mariners won two straight points on a kill by Kayla Gadberry and an attack error against the Tigers for the 31-29 win.

"All year we've worked on serve receive, winning points and getting the serve back," Mihm said. "That's what we did, and we just did that better than them at the end."

After the Mariners forged the 2-2 tie with their 25-20 triumph in the fourth set which they controlled, the teams then staged a close fifth set before the Mariners prevailed in the end.

Neither side led by more than a point for the first 24 points, but with the score tied 12-12, the Mariners scored the final three points on back-to-back kills by Gadberry and Ehize Omoghibo before clinching the last point on an attack error by the Tigers.

"We were confident after the third set. We just played so relaxed after that. It was really stress-free," Amundson said.

Amundson ended up leading the Mariners with 16 kills. Gadberry finished with 15 kills while Kyra White added 13. Omoghibo and Allie Shannon both contributed nine.

Cayley Meiners finished with 55 assists as Coastal Georgia finished with 66 total kills.

Defensively, four Coastal Georgia players notched double-digit dig totals including Alyssa Keeve (24), Amundson (20), Gadberry (11) and Meiners (11).

Also, Shannon had two solo blocks and two assisted blocks while Omoghibo had a solo and an assisted block.

For the Tigers, who finished with 71 kills, Jenny Howell led the team with a match-high 23 kills. Three other Georgetown attackers had double-figure totals.