Brunswick, Ga. – The College of Coastal Georgia women's volleyball team continued its winning tradition Saturday in the Mariner Invitational, winning all three of its matches in the 2016 edition of the tournament by 3-0 scores.
With the three victories, the Mariners ran their record in the Labor Day weekend extravangaza to 15-0 all-time in the four years of the event at Howard Coffin Gym.
This year, they sealed the tournament championship defeating College of Saint Mary in the final match of the tournament. The Flames had also won their previous two matches over Southeastern and Ave Maria to get to the matchup with the Mariners also unbeaten.
"It was a great weekend, a great tournament, especially after the crazy weather," said Coastal Georgia assistant coach Matt Wallace who led the Mariners a third straight weekend while new head coach Leah Mihm is home with a baby girl who was born on Monday.
The four-team tournament was slated to open Friday night, but with the Coastal Georgia campus closed all day Friday due to Hurricane Hermine, the tournament start was postponed until Saturday.
While the storm shut down campus and knocked out power across the Golden Isles including at the college on Friday, the opposition couldn't stop the Mariners offensive attack on Saturday.
Coastal Georgia led all four teams with a .404 hitting percentage, pounding out 126 kills in 245 total attacks with 26 errors in three matches. The Mariners averaged a tournament-best 13.9 kills per set and also a tournament-high 12.6 assists per set.
Coastal Georgia also recorded 22 aces, which was second to the 25 by Saint Mary.
The Mariners weren't too shabby defensively, either. They led all teams with 16 total blocks and were second behind the Flames with 131 digs.
Individually, Coastal Georgia's Allie Shannon led all attackers with a .483 hitting mark while Kyra White followed with a .455 total and Rachel Amundson was third with a .448 mark.
Shannon and Amundson both had 31 kills to rank second and third while White was fifth with 23 kills.
Cayley Mainers was second overall with 102 kills, averaging 11.3 over nine sets.
Defensively, Alyssa Keeve led the team with 37 digs, notching a tournament-best 4.1 per set.
"Kyra, Rachel and Allie all had a good weekend, leading our offense," Wallace said. "And of course, Cayley is our all-star setter, and she's giving the ball to our attackers where they want it and need it. Alyssa Keeve did another great job in the back row. When we're passing like we did today, it's tough stopping our offense."
Coastal Georgia opened against Ave Maria in the first of five total matches on the day. The Mariners won 25-13, 25-9, 25-11. They hit a whopping .636 with 38 kills in 55 attempts. Amundson and Shannon both had 10 kills each. Meiners assisted on 29 points.
Against Southeastern in their second match, the Mariners won 25-14, 25-10, 25-20. They hit .438 while checking the Fire to a .173 mark.
With the team banging out 47 kills, Shannon led the attack with 15 kills in 20 swings. She also rang up five aces.
Meiners recorded 37 assists. Keeve topped the defense with 13 digs.
In the last match against the Flames, the Mariners trailed by several points in all three frames, but rallied each time, winning all three sets by a 25-22 tally.
Amundson finished with 14 kills in the win while White posted 11.
Meiners notched 36 assists. Keeve paced the defense with 15 digs while Amundson followed with 12.
Now 7-4 overall after three tournaments to start the season, the Mariners will swing into Southern States Athletic Conference action at Brewton-Parker on Tuesday before playing host to Middle Georgia State for an SSAC match next Saturday.
