In their first match of the day, the Bears won 3-0 in three close sets to defeat the host team, Johnson & Wales 25-22, 25-18, 25-20. 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --
Despite a late surge from the Wildcats, CGA led for nearly all of set one. Early on, the scores were close but a five point run from 16-14 to 21-14 gave the Bears some breathing room. Junior defensive specialist Vickie Mancine(Chicago, IL) was serving for the run in which Johnson & Wales made four errors. Coast Guard would end up winning 25-22, capped off by a kill from sophomore pin Julia Gallinger(Garrison, NY). 

Set two was even more comfortable of a victory with the Bears feasting on mistakes from JWU. Over half of the CGA points came from errors made by their opponent. Gallinger, along with teammates Shannon Shaw(Torrance, CA) and Allie Wildsmith(Bainbridge Island, WA) had two kills each in the win.

The third set was close all the way to the end. With Coast Guard leading 22-18 the Wildcats battled back to make the score 22-20, but after a timeout from coach Thomas, the Bears took control. After two JWU errors and yet another Julia Gallinger kill, the Bears completed the 3-0 sweep. 

The aforementioned Wildsmith and Gallinger led the way on the attack with nine and eight kills respectively. Eloise Shirley(Burke, VA) and Shannon Shaw added six each with Shirley tops on the team with a .545 attack percentage. Shaw and Gallinger each had five digs on top of their offensive contributions. Leading the way in digs for the Bears yet again was senior libero Kaela France(Calhan, CO) with 17. Sophia Rosenberg topped the Bears with 16 assists, teammates Keira Whalen(Philadelphia, PA) and Mack Murnane(Castle Hayne, NC) had five assists each.

Match two would not be as successful as the first as Amherst would come out victorious over the Bears in five sets. After winning the first two sets, CGA lost the last three to the Mammoths. In an evenly matched affair, CGA would lose 25-21, 28-26, 21-25, 27-29, 9-15. 

After winning the first two and losing the third, the fourth would be the biggest set in the match. Amherst, with all the momentum on their side, led for nearly the entire time. Down 23-20, Coast Guard battled back four straight points to bring it to match point. Amherst scored to tie the set at 24-24 and scored the next point to push to set point. The Bears would fight back to 26-26 on a Shannon Shaw kill and later spoiled another set point on a block from Shaw and Allie Widsmith but finally fell 27-29 to the Mammoths.

In set 5, the Bears simply ran out of steam and fell to Amherst 9-15 to lose the match. Coast Guard will next face rival USMMA at home on Tuesday September 10 at 7:00 PM.