VIRGINIA BEACH, VA

In their season opener at the Captains Classic hosted by Christopher Newport, the Bears took care of business with a 3-0(25-13, 28-26, 25-18) victory over the Cardinals of Catholic University. 

Catholic falls to 0-2 to start their 2025 campaign, they will round out their trip to Newport News with a match vs Wisconsin-Whitewater tomorrow at 3:00 pm.

Coast Guard was dominant in the first set in a 25-13 win. The set saw two Bears rookies announce their presence in a big way; Ava Ahokovi(Honolulu, HI) had nine assists and Corey Lemmer(San Francisco, CA) notched her first career dig for the 25th point to give CGA the first set win.

After taking care of business from start to finish in set one, Coast Guard had to fight from behind in set two. They trailed by as many as five(22-17) but clawed back and took advantage of Catholic errors. Kills by Sarah Somer(Cary, NC) and Amelia Matson(Mililani, HI), sandwiched by two Cardinal errors gave the Bears a four point run to cut their deficit to just one. After Catholic bounced back with a kill, three straight errors gave CGA their first lead since 2-1. After trading points, two consecutive kills by Julia Raab brought Catholic to set point. The Cardinal's 11th error of the set tied the score at 26-26, and the Bears wouldn't turn back. They got to set point themselves on an Abby Schweitzer(Emmaus, PA) kill and took a two sets to none lead on an Amelia Matson ace.

The third set was more like set one with Coast Guard jumping out early and never allowing Catholic to threaten. After Ahokovi and Lemmer got their names in the scorebook in set one, freshman setter Holly Davis(Sisters, OR) joined the party with four assists in the final set, including two to fellow rookie Corey Lemmer. Sam Ventimiglia(Key West, FL) put the finishing touches on the 3-0 sweep with a game-winning kill, her seventh of the day. 

Ventimiglia led the Bears in attack percentage(.417) and was fourth in kills behind Amelia Matson(10), Sarah Somer(9), and Abby Schweitzer(8). It was a banner day for Schweitzer who tied her career high in kills. Feeding the CGA attack was the aforementioned freshman Ava Ahokovi who led all players with 23 assists. Sophia Rosenberg(Hershey, PA) and libero Laila Baameur(Bakersfield, CA) added seven and five assists respectively. 

Ahokovi was challenged defensively as well. Catholic targeted the freshman and she handled the attack, tying Matson for the team lead in digs with 12. Just behind them was junior defensive specialist Courtney Shire(Cape May, NJ) who had 11 digs, including some acrobatic saves in the first set. 

After the 1-0 start, Coast Guard will look to carry their momentum into a gauntlet tomorrow of #2 Wisconsin-Whitewater at 11 a.m. and #21 Christopher Newport at 3 p.m.