The College of Marin Volleyball team took a trip to John Steinbeck's home town of Salinas on Friday, September 4th to compete in a pair of matches against Hartnell and Merced Colleges. While both resulted in losses, the young team is starting gel after four matches.
Their first match of the day against Hartnell College was a hard fought struggle as the Mariners fell in three straight sets 25-13, 25-7, and 25-10. Hartnell currently sports a 7-1 record with their only blemish a five set loss to American River College. Despite the lopsided nature of the match, there were some bright spots for College of Marin. Ashley Mellor had eight digs, Kailey Walker recorded three kills, three assists and five digs and Tate Dobbins had four kills and seven digs.
After a very quick break, the Mariners faced off against Merced College in the second match of the day with much more positive results. Marin took the first set 25-22 before Merced answered with a 25-12 score in the second. Although Merced was victorious in the final two sets and the match, the final score lines did not belie the quality of the Marin squad. Jenny Huezo had 20 assists and a service ace. Tate Dobbins notched 10 kills and four digs, while Kailey walked was three kills shy of a double double with seven kills, and 13 digs.
Coach Lindsay Bacigaluipi on the matches, "Our energy was better, Kailey [Walker] passed really well and played good defense. Overall we are improving, but we still have a ways to go. We need to cut down on mental errors, and our focus could be better. We need to limit our mistakes on fundamentals like footwork and communication."
The Mariners' next match is Tuesday, September 8th at City College of San Francisco.