Oct. 14, 2005
Amy Beaver recorded 13 kills and hit .500 as the Georgia Tech volleyball team fell to North Carolina, 3-0 (30-23, 30-28, 30-10) Friday night in front of 4,435 fans. The Yellow Jackets drop to 9-7, 5-2 ACC while the Tar Heels improve to 12-6, 7-1 ACC. The Tar Heels 3-0 sweep of the Yellow Jackets marks the first time in 55 matches that head coach Bond Shymansky loses an ACC contest in three games.
Georgia Tech was led by Laura DeMichelis who posted nine kills in the match while Callie Miller also added nine kills and hit a team-best .212. Defensively, Jennifer Randall had 14 digs, which was a team high.
North Carolina ended the match with three players posting double-figure kills in Beaver, Lauren Prussing (11) and Dani Nyenhuis (11). The Tar Heels were led on defense by Taylor Rayfield who recorded a match-best 18 digs while Brianna Eskloa added 12.
The Yellow Jackets will stay in the state of North Carolina, facing NC State in Reynolds Coliseum Saturday at 5 p.m.
Tech fell behind early in game one by a 5-1 score but was able to slowly narrow the gap and came within one point at 18-19 on steady sideout offense and on several hitting errors by the Tar Heels. After a Carolina timeout, Talisa Kellogg tipped a ball off the antennae and then hit one out of bounds giving the Tar Hedlls a 21-18 lead. Kellogg came right back with a cross court kill to cut the lead to within two, but it was as close as the Jackets would get the rest of the game. With Tech trailing 25-22, DeMichelis posted two straight errors and Nyenhuis posted one of her four kills in the game to make the score 28-22. Tech got the serve back after Nyenhuis hit a ball deep out of bounds, but Ihenetu responded with a down the line kill behind the setter to give the Tar Heels the ball back. Tech lost the first game, 30-23 after Talisa Kellogg sailed a ball deep out of bounds. In the game, the Jackets posted 10 kills and 10 errors while North Carolina had 18 kills and hit .186.
In game two, the Jackets offense was much stronger, posting 18 kills and hitting .176 while UNC hit .185. Tech led throughout the game and was up by as many as five at 19-15 after a kill from Kaminskas. After a Carolina timeout, the Tar Heels began chipping away at the lead and pulled to within one after a service reception error by Lindsey Gray made the score 20-19. The Jackets then called a timeout, but could not sideout as Nyenhuis recorded a kill to tie the score at 20-20. The game then went back and forth and was tied at 23-23 until Gray posted two hitting errors to give North Carolina its first lead of the game at 25-23. After a ballhandling error by Laband gave the Tar Heels a three point lead, Laband came back with a kill to the middle of the court and then Miller and Kellogg recorded a stuff block followed by two straight Tar Heel errors gave Tech the lead, 27-26. But two straight errors by Kellogg pushed Carolina’s lead to 28-27. The Jackets came back with a kill from Miller, but two straight kills from Prussing gave the Tar Heels game two, 30-28.
Game three got away early from the Yellow Jackets after a questionable call occurred during the first point. Tech appeared to have scored the game’s first point on a kill from DeMichelis, but the official called a replay ruling that the ball had interfered with the basketball goal at the end of the court. Tech then fell behind 3-0 with three straight errors and never could get in sync in the game, suffering its worst defeat of the season, 30-10. The Tar Heels hit .378 while the Jackets managed to hit -163.
