Nov. 2, 2004
For the past two years, junior setter Lindsey Laband has been waiting patiently. Her freshman and sophomore seasons at Georgia Tech, she spent on the sidelines watching first-team all-American Kele Eveland direct the most prolific offense in the nation.
After Eveland’s graduation, many skeptics wondered if Laband would be ready for the task at hand, running an offense which led the nation in kills (18.26) and assists (17.05) per game and finished fifth in nation in hitting percentage (.331).
But, now, two months into the season, the skeptics are no longer there.
Laband is leading the nation in assists per game (15.00) and the Yellow Jackets are now second in the nation in kills per game (18.22) and assists per game (16.83) and are ninth in the nation in hitting percentage (.296).
Currently on a 17 match win streak, the fourth longest in the country, the Yellow Jackets are at 19-5 on the season and have not lost a match since the second week of the season. With a sweep over conference foe Miami last weekend, Tech claimed the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title for the second straight season and are looking to finish out the ACC season with a perfect 16-0 record, something which has not been done in the conference since the 1997 season.
“Not many people expected much from Lindsey this year, except Lindsey and her teammates. Setting in Kele Eveland’s shadow for two years allowed her to learn and grow in her understanding of the game. Lindsey had a tough start because she lacked real-match experience and because our system is so fast and complicated, but it hasn’t taken her long to become a true leader for the team and to show that she can run things just as well as Kele did as is evidenced by her running in offense which is ranked first in the nation in assists. There is no doubt in my mind that a huge key to our 17 match win streak is the setting of Lindsey Laband.”
