BUZZARDS BAY, Mass -- The Buccaneers volleyball team opened their season on Saturday against Mitchell College and Anna Maria College in a home tri-match inside the Clean Harbors Athletic Center. The Bucs came out slow against Mitchell and ultimately dropped the match, 3-0. Against Anna Maria, it was an entirely different story. After losing the first set, the Buccaneers stormed back and won three sets in a row to grab their first win of the season, 3-1, over the AMCATS.

Match One

Inside The Numbers

Final: Mariners 3, Buccaneers 0 (25-11, 25-21, 27-25)

Records: Mitchell (2-2)

              Maritime (0-1)

Inside The Numbers

Maritime

• Offensively, Gemma Geisler led the Buccaneers with seven kills. Freshman Alanys Torres tallied six of her own. Fellow freshman Hailey Rumlow added four.
• Junior Captain Shayla Narodowg led all Maritime players with 17 assists in the loss. 
• Defensively, Audrey Manning led the way with 17 digs and Geisler added 10. 
• At the net, Chloe Johnson had four blocks, two solo and two assists. Narodowg added two block assists as well with Rumlow adding an assist and Maliah Servino tallying a block assist of her own.

Mitchell

• Genna Hyde led all players with 14 kills in the match. 
• Kiersten Veenstra led the way in assists with 27. 
• Allison Blum had 25 digs and Julia Lent had 17 of her own. 
• At the net, Hyde had a solo block and a block assists in the win.

How It Happened

The Buccaneers scored their first point of the season on their first serve of the season on an Ace from Narodowg. Unfortunately, following that point, Mitchell went on a 12-0 run and took a 12-1 lead. The Bucs scored 10 more times in the set but it was not enough to close the 11-point gap from early in the set and the Mariners took the first set by a final of 25-11. 

In set two, the Bucs took the early lead again, this time 2-0, and they were able to keep up with the Mariners as the team traded points until the score reached 9-9. At that point, Mitchell scored five in a row to take a 14-9 lead. Late in the game, the Buccaneers climbed back into it and were down two points, 20-18, and they held that two-point deficit until the score reached 23-21. Mitchel then went on to score three unanswered to win the set, 25-21, and took a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set three started with the Mariners jumping out to a 3-0 lead early followed by the Bucs keeping it within one point until the Mariner led 9-8. Midway through, the Mitchell lead ballooned back out to five, 17-12, but the Maritime squad went on a 8-3 run and tied the game at 20-20. The Bucs continued the fight and even led 24-23 late on. The Mariner tied the game at 24-24 and again scored the next three points they needed to win the game in extra points, 27-25, and took the match 3-0.

Match Two

The Basics

Final: Buccaneers 3, AMCATS 1 (24-26, 25-16, 25-20, 25-22)

Records: Maritime (1-1)

               Anna Maria (0-5)

Inside The Numbers

Maritime

• Freshman Hailey Rumlow led all players in the match with 16 kills. Gemma Geisler was second to her with 12 kills of her own.
• Shayla Narodowg recorded 32 assists in the win.
• Defensively, Audrey Manning led all Bucs with 39 digs and Marlo Stark racked up 25 digs. 
• At the net, Chlow Johnson added three more blocks on the day and Malia Servino did the same with three blocks of her own. 

Anna Maria

• Bri Franklin led the AMCATS with 11 kills and Lauren Decoteau had eight of her own. 
• Gia Hall had 18 assists to lead her team. 
• Annie Taylor led all players in the match defensively with 42 digs. Franklin and Jana Hunt each had 15.
• At the net, Decoteau and Ella Moon each had three block assists.

How It Happened

With each team coming off a loss to Mitchell earlier in the day, the AMCATS and Bucs came out hot in the final match of the day. The first game was close early and then the Buccaneer took control going up by six, 12-6. Maritime kept their lead steady at five or more points for the majority of the set and led by seven late, 22-15. Anna Maria started to close the gap and got the game back to a three-point deficit, 22-19. Maritime then scored two straight points and needed just one to win their first set of the season. Down 24-20, Taylor took control of the match on the service and went on to lead the AMCASTS with five straight points in a come from behind, 26-24, win in the first set of the match.

Down 1-0, the Bucs needed some momentum and they got that in the second game. After the 'Cats went up 2-1, Maritime took a lead and slowly worked that lead up five points, 18-13. The AMCATS scored three points to the Bucs two down the stretch and it looked like AMC would get back into this game as they did in the first one. Fortunately, the Bucs Erin Donlan went on a service run of her own and led the Bucs to five straight points to give the Buccaneers their first set win of the season, 25-16, and tied the match up at 1-1.

In set three, The Bucs took a 5-0 lead and though the AMCATS scored one, the hosts extended their lead to nine points, 10-1. Anna Maria sprinkled in another point and the Bucs again scored three more and led 13-2. The Bucs had the big lead but much like the first set, they saw it dwindle away as late in the game the AMCATS got back within two points, 20-18. Then, Maritime's Alaina Strozik served three straight times to give the Bucs a 24-18 win. Anna Maria went on to score two more times but thanks to a kill by Narodowg, Maritime won the third game of the match, 25-20, and took a 2-1 lead.

Anna MAria jumped out to a lead of their own in set four, trying to take the match to a fifth and deciding set on Taylor's Point. The AMCATS went up five early, 11-6, and then led by six later on, 16-10. At that point, the game started to swing in favor of the Buccaneers. Down 20-16, the Bucs, again with Donlan on the serve, went on to score eight unanswered to take a 24-22 lead late on. With the serve, Anna Maria made a costly error and freshman Natalie Gale got the game and match deciding block. The Bucs won the fourth set, 25-22, and took their first match of the young season, 3-1.

What's Next

The Buccaneers travel to Boston on Tuesday, September 10th to take on Emmanuel College at 7pm.