Oct. 5, 2012
THE FLATS – The Georgia Tech volleyball team (12-4, 4-2 ACC) defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies in four sets, 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-13, 25-19), Friday night at a packed O’Keefe Gym to remain a perfect 8-0 at home this season.
Four Yellow Jackets hit over .400 in the match led by Annie Czarnecki (.733, 11-of-15). Senior Bailey Hunter had a season-high 23 kills, while Monique Mead added 16 and Chanell Clark-Bibbs contributed eight.
“What a great team effort tonight,” head coach Tonya Johnson said. “Virginia Tech is a very good team and they’ve been playing really well. I thought it was important for us to come out and respond tonight after last weekend.
“I thought Kaleigh Colson did a great job of getting balls to the middles and I thought our offense was pretty spread out. We didn’t have to rely on one or two people and that makes winning easier. It was a fun match to watch.”
After a flat start from the Jackets in the first set, the Hokies (11-5, 4-2) jumped out to a 5-2 lead. Georgia Tech worked its way out of an 18-14 disadvantage to tie the score, 19-19. GT took its first lead of the game on set-point 24-23 thanks to a kill by Clark-Bibbs and a point by Hunter capped off the set.
“We came out and we weren’t working hard enough to put ourselves in a position to be successful,” Johnson said. “We had a couple bad passes and we missed a defensive assignment. We had to play catch up. We worked really hard to get back into the set and to tie the score. “
The second game was a back-and-forth battle that featured three lead changes and 11 tied scores. Virginia Tech would eventually end up with the victory after Georgia Tech tried to rally back from a 24-19 deficit.
Georgia Tech was in complete control of the third and fourth games. GT started the third game with a 6-1 lead to force a Virginia Tech timeout and kept the pressure on, taking a 20-10 behind the serve of Colson and five-straight unanswered points.
The fourth game had two lead changes and two tied scores, but Georgia Tech maintained its momentum from the third set. Trailing 19-16, Virginia Tech closed the gap to 20-19 after regrouping at a timeout. The Yellow Jackets then scored five-straight to take the deciding set and the match.
Georgia Tech is back in action Saturday night against the Virginia Cavaliers. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at O’Keefe Gym.
