Women's Volleyball Go Down to Georgia Tech in Five Games.
Nov. 3, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s volleyball team went down 2-3 (30-18, 23-30, 16-30, 32-30, 16-18) to Georgia Tech this evening at the Knight Sports Complex. Miami’s record fell to 9-15 overall and 6-9 in the ACC, while the Yellow Jackets improved 14-10 overall, and 6-8 in the league.
Jill Robinson had a stand-out performance on offense, as she posted a career match-high of 11 kills. In addition, the senior setter registered her 12th double-double leading the Hurricanes in assists with 44 total. She also tallied in six digs, five total blocks from two solos and three block assists.
“I thought Jill played an incredible match for us tonight”, commented head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch. “She became very active offensively, and played very smart by coming up with some really key plays”.
On the offensive end, Frannie Savage and Ciara Michel put up double digit numbers in kills with 12 and 14 respectively.
Lici McGee contributed well on offense as she played all five games. The freshman middle blocker posted a season high of nine kills along with two assists, and four digs. She also contributed four total blocks.
“Lici had a very strong match, and she’s just getting better and better”, said Lantagne Welch. “She’s coming along more and more offensively. At the same time she’s a big blocker out there, and people are afraid to hit in her direction. She causes a lot of havoc”.
Defensively, Michelle Bruin led the hurricanes with 10 digs, while freshman libero Cassie Loessberg followed with nine digs total.
As a team, Miami out-blocked Georgia Tech 15-9, and out-dug the ACC foes by three with a total 52. However, Georgia Tech posted a .280 hitting percentage versus Miami’s .276, and registered 78 over the Hurricanes’ 65 kills. The Yellow Jackets also posted total of 73 kills and nine service aces.
Miami shut down game one with a 30-18 win, as they dominated on both offense and defense with 15 kills and 16 digs. Georgia Tech struggled on the attack as Miami capitalized on the Yellow Jackets’ 11 errors. The Hurricanes came out strong with an early 10-4 lead, and never looked back. By 23-15, Ciara Michel and Frannie Savage came up with the block-assists forcing an attack error by Georgia Tech’s Ulrike Stegemann, sending the Yellow Jackets to take their first timeout. The remainder of the match saw back-to-back errors on behalf of both squads. Georgia Tech had seven, while Miami had two, along with only kill posted by Savage to finalize game one, and send Miami into the next game with a 1-0 lead.Game two saw 24 kills by the Yellow Jackets and a .564 hitting percentage sending them on their way to their first win of the match with a 30-23 finish. The score was tied nine times before Georgia Tech pulled away to stretch their lead by as much as six with the score 25-19 due to an attack error off of Woods, sending Miami to take a timeout. Back onto the court each point on up to the end of the game came off of an offensive kill, with Miami dishing out four and Georgia Tech registering five. Each kill from the Hurricanes were through the efforts of Woods, Michel, Robinson, and Duncan to try and keep their team in the game. But they fell short as Georgia Tech advanced on with the win, and the match tied 1-all.
The Yellow Jackets over-powered Miami as they put the game away 30-16 in the third set, off the strength of a kill by Georgia Tech’s Callie Miller.
Both teams battled for the win in game four, but it was the Hurricanes who came out on top with the 32-30 win off of a .400 hitting percentage and19 kills. The beginning of the game saw the Hurricanes put up four back-to-back kills from Genny Mayhew and Ciara Michel with two apiece an early 13-8 lead, and a timeout called by the Yellow Jackets. Down the stretch, Georgia Tech began to pick up their pace as they rallied back to take their first lead due to three errors from Miami, with the score 22-21. After Miami took their last timeout, the game went through a moment of competitive action as both squads tied six times to fought for the lead and eventually the game win. Duncan, Robinson, and Savage posted the final kills for their team, as the rest of the Hurricanes capitalized on the errors caused by the Yellow Jackets who tallied another 11 forcing a game five.
“We responded incredibly well, and battled hard in game four to pull out with a win and make it a five game match”.
Miami came out with great intensity to try and put away the match as they posted an early 10-6 lead in the deciding game. Georgia Tech registered the next three points, sending Miami to the bench for a timeout. As they went on, Georgia Tech also took a timeout after Jill Robinson dished out a kill to put the Hurricanes up 14-13. But after the Yellow Jackets tacked on the next two points going ahead of the Hurricanes 15-14, it forced Miami to take advantage of their final timeout to regroup. A bad set by Georgia Tech’s Allie Niekamp put Miami up to tie the score at 15-all. However Talisa Kellogg responded with a kill, so did Ciara Michel to keep the Hurricanes in the game at 16-all. But Kellogg and Niekemp finished it out with the last two kills, giving Georgia Tech the win and the match victory.
“We had our chances to win in game five as it turned out to be a hard-fought match for us”, stated Lantagne Welch. “Overall, our team played well a put out a really nice effort”.
The Hurricanes will return to the Knight Sports Complex Sunday afternoon, as they take on Clemson. Match is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.
