Oct. 20, 2012
THE FLATS – The nationally-ranked Florida State volleyball team slipped past Georgia Tech, 3-2, (35-33, 25-23, 13-25, 17-25, 10-15), on Friday night at O’Keefe Gymnasium. With the win, the Seminoles (17-2, 9-1) maintain an 11-game win streak and snap the Yellow Jackets’ (15-6, 6-4) perfect 9-0 home record.
In the team’s annual “Dig Pink” match, Monique Mead and Bailey Hunter tallied double-doubles to lead the Jackets. Mead collected a team-high 19 kills with 11 digs for her seventh double-double of the season and Hunter added 14 kills and 10 digs to record her sixth of the season.
On defense, Nicki Meyer led the back row with 12 digs and the front row combined for 24 block assists to tie the season-high led by Annie Czarnecki’s eight block assists.
The first set was a marathon with Tech coming out on top 35-33. The game featured 21 tied scores and 11 lead changes. Hunter led Georgia Tech in the opening frame, connecting on 7 of 13 swings for a .385 hitting clip.
Florida State led Georgia Tech 10-5 in the second stanza and eventually increased its lead 14-9 on a 4-2 run. The Yellow Jackets worked their way out of the deficit to tie the match in the final points, 23-23, forcing an FSU timeout. Tech closed out the frame with a kill by Courtney Felinski and a service ace by Mead.
The Seminoles regrouped in the break between the second and third sets to come out and sweep the next three games.
Although Tech led at the beginning of the third game, FSU tied the score 8-8 and went on a series of runs, including a 5-0 run to make the score 18-11 and a 7-2 run to close out the game, 25-13.
The Yellow Jackets hit at just a .094 clip in the fourth frame. Freshman Chanell Clark-Bibbs provided a bright spot with a .800 hitting percentage (4-of-5).
Attacking errors were a main factor for Tech in the fifth set. The Seminoles had a strong blocking night with eight block assists in the final game to go along with 27 blocking assists in the match – the most by a Tech opponent this season.
The team donned pink jerseys for the “Dig Pink” match tonight and will auction off the jersey on www.ramblinwreck.com starting Saturday, Oct. 20 at 12 p.m. The bidding starts at $75 and the final day of the auction is Saturday, Nov. 3 at 12 p.m. All proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation and fans can reach the auction page by clicking here.
Tech is back in action when the Yellow Jackets welcome No. 24 Miami to O’Keefe Gym on Sunday at 1 p.m. The match is scheduled to be televised on the league’s regional sports networks and streamed on ESPN3.com.
