LAKELAND, Fla. – Despite having five players with double-digit kills and hitting .250 as a team, Coastal Georgia dropped another close 3-2 (16-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 15-9) match to Southeastern on Wednesday evening.
As a team, Coastal Georgia tallied 72 kills. Addie Pedraza led the Mariners with 17 kills. Kyra White hit 15 kills and hit .538 for the match. Both Sam Kepler and Molly Fletcher tallied 13 kills, while Alexis Downey had 10 kills.
Yorelis Rios Gonzalez made 27 digs. Ashley Kot recorded her fifth double-double in a row with 60 assists and 21 digs.
Coastal Georgia came out with a strong .359 hitting percentage in the first set. Tied at 14-14, the Mariners exploded for a 10-1 run. A kill from White started the scoring span. A Southeastern block paused the Mariners' offense, but a kill from Kepler on the next point won the set.
The Mariners had a three-point, 20-17 lead after a bad set by Southeastern. However, the Fire used a four-point run to take a 21-20 lead. Coastal Georgia tied the set at 22-22 on a Pedraza kill, but Southeastern scored three of the set's last four points to even the match at 1-1.
Coastal Georgia led by as many as six in the third set. A block from White gave the Mariners' their first six-point lead, going up 19-13. Coastal Georgia had a six-point margins at 22-16 and 23-17 before ultimately winning the set by five points and on a Fletcher kill.
After trailing by one late in the fourth set, a kill from Kepler started five-point run that resulted in Coastal Georgia going up 22-18. Southeastern answered with a 7-1 of its own, including five-straight points to win the set and force a decisive fifth set.
Southeastern scored consecutive points on its final three service rotations in order to pull away from the Mariners in the fifth set. Coastal Georgia trailed by on point on multiple occasions, including with a White kill making it an 8-7 set in favor of the Fire.
Coastal Georgia opens a regular-season ending three-match homestand on Saturday. The Mariners host Florida Memorial in Coffin Gym at 2 p.m.
