Sept. 15, 2006
ATLANTA – Lindsey Gray had 11 kills and hit .529 to lead Georgia Tech (6-2) to a 3-0 (30-25, 30-21, 30-17) win over South Florida (4-6) in the Yellow Jackets’ first match of the Regency Suites Midtown Invitational, which is being held at O’Keefe Gymnasium Friday and Saturday.
“We got great contribution tonight from everyone on the team, and those are always rewarding victories,” said Georgia Tech head coach Bond Shymansky. “Our outside hitters tore it up and Lindsey Gray gave an inspired performance. This final home weekend before ACC play begins is extremely important for our team to get tuned up and prepared for the long conference slate.”
The Yellow Jackets hit a season-high .458 as a team while recording 10 blocks against the Bulls, while the USF offense hit just .101 on the night. Allie Niekamp guided the Georgia Tech offense, recording 45 assists on the evening while recording a team-high eight digs.
The Yellow Jackets held USF’s top hitters Marcella Gurgel and Ashley Reavis to just .088 and .188 hitting percentages behind the net defense of Callie Miller and Ulrike Stegemann, who had five and three blocks, respectively.
Tech showed steady improvement through the three games, hitting .345 in game one before recording a .438 hitting percentage in the second game. The final frame was the Jackets’ finest, however, as Tech hit .636 with six players hitting over .500.
The Jackets fell behind 12-15 in game one before winning the next four points of a kill by Gray, an ace by Niekamp and a pair of attack errors by USF. Stegemann recorded six of her eight digs of the match in the first game while Gray and Talisa Kellogg led the Jackets with four kills apiece.
In game two, the Jackets took an early 10-5 lead and then built a 20-10 edge en route to a 30-21 victory, while the Tech offense was nearly unstoppable in game three, with Chrissy DeMichelis leading the team with five blocks while Miller and Nikki Kaminskas added three apiece to help Tech to a 30-17 win in the final frame.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action in the final two games of the tournament, which begin at 6 p.m. Saturday evening. Tech will face Stetson at 6 p.m. before a meeting Sam Houston State at 8:30 p.m. Both contests will be broadcast on WREK-Radio (91.1 FM in Atlanta/www.wrek.org), while livestats are available at www.ramblinwreck.com. Live Video is also available for both of Georgia Tech’s matches at www.gatech.playonsports.tv.
