BRUNSWICK, Ga.- The Ave Maria University volleyball team was victorious in The Sun Conference Match of the Week on Saturday afternoon, sweeping the Mariners of the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. The victory guaranteed the Gyrenes will finish in the top four of The Sun Conference for the second season in a row, ensuring AMU will have either a bye or a home match in the conference tournament.
Saturday's first set saw the Gyrenes pull away late, after most of the opening portion of the set saw the teams closely battling. After Coastal Georgia held a 3-2 lead, the Gyrenes did not trail, but could only push the advantage to four before Coastal battled back to tie the set at 15. From that point, Ave Maria ended the set on a 10-2 run, with a kill from Rita Campos closing out a 25-17 AMU victory.
Ave Maria continued that momentum into the second set, jumping out to an 13-5 lead. In that stretch, the Gyrenes took advantage of Coastal Georgia's mistakes, as eight of AMU's first 13 points came on either attack errors or service errors by the Mariners. The Mariners did not get closer than five points from that moment on, as AMU cruised to another 25-17 win, taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
AMU finished off the Mariners in the third set, earning their most decisive victory of the day at 25-15. The Gyrenes had their best attacking set in the third, logging a .333 attack percentage while forcing eight attack errors and a -.087 attack percentage from Coastal Georgia. The Mariners put together a mini-rally on AMU's first four match points, but a kill from Abigail Costlow finally moved the Gyrenes to 18-7 on the season.
The Gyrene defensive effort was on point on Saturday afternoon, holding the Mariners to just 21 kills and a .011 attack percentage as a team. Ave Maria held Coastal Georgia standout Giovana Larregui Lopez to just seven kills. On the attack, the Gyrenes had 37 kills as a unit, and saw their attack percentage go up in each set, finishing the match at .236.
A pair of freshmen led the way for the Gyrenes, as Rita Campos had 14 kills and Abigail Costlow had nine. Both freshmen had an attack percentage of .600 or better. In her second game back, Katie Grose led the Gyrenes with 19 assists, while Lily Witkoski added a double-double of 12 assists and ten digs. Hannah Jones added nine digs in the win.
Entering the final week of the season, the Gyrenes remain in contention for the regular season Sun Conference title. Ave Maria is one game behind St. Thomas with two matches to play. AMU can clinch a bye in The Sun Conference Tournament on Wednesday, should the Gyrenes defeat the Seahawks of Keiser University on Wednesday night in Ave Maria. Opening serve of that match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
