BRUNSWICK, Ga. – The Coastal Georgia Mariners (17-8, 10-4) fall to the Florida Memorial Lions (19-9, 11-4) in four sets.
Transfer Junior Alison Muldrow led the Mariners with eight kills and the highest hitting percentage .211. Senior outside Addie Pedraza collected seven kills and freshman Lillian Carlson totaled six.
Setter Ashley Kot stood out in today's match. She led the Mariners with 11 assists and 19 digs. Kot also contributed the only two aces for the Mariners today, which were delivered in the first three points of set two. Junior setter Gardieliz Laureano-Andujar contributed nine assists and nine digs.
The digs in the backrow were spread across senior's Yorelis Rios Gonzalez who had 14, Jane Townsend who had 11 and Madie Bunge who finished with nine.
The Mariners blocking was strong. As a team they collected 10 block assists and one solo. Muldrow totaled three assists, sophomore Adair Werley added two assists and a solo and Pedraza contributed two assists.
Coastal Georgia 1, Florida Memorial 3 (11-25, 25-22, 13-25, 11-25)
Set One:
Both Florida Memorial and Coastal Georgia have explosive offensive weapons and they were in full display in today's matchup. What proved fatal for the Mariners in the first set was errors. Coastal Georgia made eight errors to the Lions two.
Coastal Georgia did not seem to be able to hold back the Lion's offense and Florida Memorial took an early 10-5 lead. The Mariners, still struggling went down 17-6 before Coastal Georgia called a timeout.
The Mariners, despite showing some hope with some big swings from Pedraza and Muldrow as well as a block solo from Werley, were not able to pull enough momentum to overcome the early lead, and the Mariners fell 25-11.
Set Two:
Coastal Georgia started set two with a whole new energy. They came out winning seven unanswered points. Kot set the tone for the set with two aces in the first three points.
The Lion's came back with a run of five of their own and made this game an all-out battle. Coastal Georgia managed to out kill Florida Memorial 11 to their 10, which was enough to put them over the edge to win set two.
Set Three:
The Mariners fought in the early points of the match tight with the Lions. However, in the early teens the Mariners gave up an eight point run, that despite their best effort they could not come back from. The Lions would go on to score six in a row to get to game point and eventually beat the Mariners 25-13.
Set Four:
With all the momentum that the Lion's had built up, they continued to push through towards victory. They took an early 13-6 lead. Despite dueling fairly back and forth after that, the Mariners could not overcome the Lions.
After this win Florida Memorial sealed second place in the Sun Conference and Coastal Georgia moves to fourth overall.
The Mariners will host their final home game of the regular season on Wednesday, November 6th against Webber International before heading into the post season tournament the following week.
