Nov. 23, 2004
The outside hitting duo of Lynnette Moster and Lauren Sauer combined for 36 kills and hit .400 as the Georgia Tech volleyball team won its sixth straight match over archrival Georgia, 30-24, 30-23, 30-28. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improve to 24-6 while the Bulldogs fall to 18-11.
“After our performance last week in the ACC Tournament, I really challenged our team to come together as a team and push themselves to perform at the level they are capable of, and I can’t think of a better situation to do it then against Georgia,” said head coach Bond Shymansky, who is now 3-0 when facing Georgia. “Tonight’s performance is very indicative on the team we can be. I thought that our defense really played well tonight, which then led to our offense having success. For Lynnette and Lauren to only have four errors between them shows that they really worked hard on making smart shots. Jennifer and Marisa both had great matches tonight and at times were fighting over who was going to get the dig, which I think is great and exactly the way we should play defense. Our challenge will now be to carry this work ethic into Friday’s match as we prepare for the NCAA Tournament.”
The difference in the match was the offense, as Tech hit .351 as a team while holding the Bulldogs to a .209 performance. In addition to Moster and Sauer, Jayme Gergen had 11 kills in the match and hit .500, and was followed by Ulrike Stegemann who had five kills and Laura Kuhn and Lindsey Laband who each had three. Laband ran the offense, recording 47 assists in the three game match.
At the net, Tech posted seven blocks as Sauer recorded three solo blocks and has now moved into second place on Tech’s career block list. Stegemann had three block assists, followed by Moster and Laband who each had two.
Defensively, Jennifer Randall led the team with 11 digs while Marisa Aston followed with 10, Moster had eight and Laband and Abby Showers each recorded seven.
At the service line, Randall recorded three service aces while Moster and Showers each posted one.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action Friday when they Winthrop in O’Keefe Gym at 4:30 p.m.
The game was tight to open the match with the teams going back and forth with four ties. With the score 6-6, the Jackets scored on a kill off the hands from Moster, a stuff block by Moster and Stegemann and a kill on an overpass from Moster to give Tech a 9-6 lead. Georgia fought back and made the score 13-12 scoring on hitting errors from Kuhn and with kills from Welch and Wallace. But, the Jackets regrouped and built a seven point lead, 24-17, with a kill from Sauer, a service ace from Moster and a kill from Gergen. Tech would go on to win the game, 30-24, with two straight service aces from Randall, a kill down the line from Sauer and a setter dump into the middle of the court by Laband. Tech was led by Sauer who had seven kills in the first game, followed by Moster who had four kills and hit .571.
Tech opened up game two with five straight points on two kills each from Sauer and Gergen and a Bulldog hitting error. After a Georgia timeout, the Bulldogs scored on a kill off the hands by Meagan Welch to make the score 5-1. Georgia then tied the score at 14-14 on two straight Jacket hitting errors and a kill from Oquendo. On the pursuing play, Liz Pace was called for a ball handling error which were then followed by two hitting errors from Oquendo giving Tech a 18-14 lead. The score became 18-15 on a ball handling error from Aston, but it would be as close as the Bulldogs would get as Tech went on a 12-8 run to close out the game and win, 30-22. In the game, the Jackets hit .354 while holding the Bulldogs to a .140 percentage. Tech was led by Moster who had nine kills in the game while Sauer added six.
In game three, 11 ties in the first 28 points of the stanza. With the score knotted at 14-14, Tech scored four straight points on two kills from Sauer, a kill from Gergen and a hitting error from Angela Hale. After a Bulldog timeout, Sauer was called for a blocking error at the net, but Gergen followed with a kill into the middle of the court. Georgia climbed back into the game with three straight kills from Petruschke and tied the score at 23-23, but the Jackets responded with a kill from Sauer, followed by a solo block by Sauer and a kill from Laband on a dig by Showers to take a 26-23 lead. A kill down the line by Moster finished out the game, giving Tech the game, 30-28.
