Coastal GA News

Coastal Georgia College Athletics issued the following announcement on Sept. 25. 

The College of Coastal Georgia Mariners (15-1, 2-1) now ranks third in the Sun Conference after defeating St. Thomas (9-6, 3-1) in a three-set sweep. The Mariners knocked off the undefeated in Conference play Bobcats 25-18, 25-20, and 25-17. 

The Florida Memorial Lions are now the only team to remain undefeated in conference play. The Mariners are only third, behind the Bobcats due to their bye during week one of Sun Conference play. 

Notable Stats: 

• Giovana Larregui Lopez recorded 13 kills in the three-set victory. She hit for .345 recording only three errors on 29 attempts from the outside and back row. 
• Samantha Johnston settled into her role as outside hitter fantastically over the last two matches. Against Webber, Johnston recorded 10 kills, a career-high, and today she bested herself, setting a new career-high 11 kills. Johnston only made one hitting error the entire match lending her to hit a career-high .455 hitting percentage. She also tied her career-high with eight digs. Johnston also had the team-high 17 serve receive attempts and only made one error. 
• The Mariners' blocking was incredible in the victory over the Bobcats. Middle Blocker Sydney Martin led the Mariners with five block assists. She was closely followed by Johnston and Meghan Oliver who each had four. 
• Seliann Concepcion Rodriguez totaled eight digs during the three-set match. 
• Rebecca Brown recorded 22 assists playing a 5-1. 

As a team in the three-set match, the Mariners recorded 33 kills, two less than the Bobcats. However, Coastal Georgia only made nine hitting errors, while STU recorded 17. The Mariners finished the match with a .264 hitting percentage. The Mariners totaled eight service aces, 40 digs, 29 assists, and 20 block assists. The Bobcats did not block one Mariner hit the entire match. 

As a team, the Mariners matched their team-low service errors with five and set a season-high 20 block assists. Their blocking finished with 11.0 total blocks as a team, also a season-high. 

Set One 

The College of Coastal Georgia Mariners got off to a hot start. After being down 1-3 Johnston served five points in a row to allow the Mariners to take an 8-4 lead. The Mariners held onto that four-point lead throughout the set. When Sheisa Lee Villegas took the serve at 19-12 is when the Mariners really sealed the first set victory. She served four balls, two of which were back-to-back aces. The Mariner's 22-13 lead left them confident to close the set. 

In the first set, Larregui Lopez recorded five kills to lead the offensive charge. Oliver had recorded two kills. The two of them contributed seven of the 10 Mariner's kills. In the first set. St. Thomas outhit them, recording 12 kills but a lower hitting percentage. Johnston was leading the defense with four digs in the first set and Martin recorded two of her four block assists. 

Set Two 

The Mariners kept up their charge. They took a 5-1 lead to start the set, pushed the lead to 13-7 and 16-11. However, that is when the Bobcats went on a three-point run to close the game off of number nine, Arianna Bollingers serve. Coastal Georgia extended their lead back to four by 20-16 and eventually closed the set 35-20, the closest of the three. 

The Mariners stepped up their blocking in the second set which is why they limited St. Thomas to only 12 kills. The Mariners recorded eight block assists in the second set. Two each came from Martin, Johnston, and Oliver. One eac was from Anabella Jaramillo and another from Concepcion Rodriguez. In addition to the blocking difference, St. Thomas would miss four serves and the Mariners did not miss any in the second set. 

Set Three 

The third set started more evenly matched, the score being 10-10 before anyone took a significant lead. The Mariners would put a clinic scoring eleven points while St. Thomas only answered with two. This took them to a 24-14 lead. The Bobcats were able to rally three points before the Mariners were able to close out the match but the three-set damage had already been done. 

Larregui Lopez and Johnston each recorded four kills in the third set. Three Mariners recorded two digs and Concepcion Rodriguez added three. The Mariners also recorded six block assists in the third set. 

Up Next: The Mariners finish their home streak with a Wednesday matchup with the Southeastern Fire. The match will take place on September 29th at 7:00 p.m. 

Original source can be found here.