Sept. 16, 2006
ATLANTA – Talisa Kellogg had 10 kills on 10 attack attempts and Nikki Kaminskas tied a career-high with 12 kills to lead Georgia Tech (7-2) to a 3-0 (30-20, 30-24, 30-28) victory over Stetson (4-9) Saturday evening at O’Keefe Gymnasium.
With the win, Georgia Tech is now 2-0 in the Regency Suites Midtown Invitational, and the Yellow Jackets will meet Sam Houston State, who has also been perfect in tournament play, for the championship at 8:30 p.m. tonight. The match will be broadcast live on WREK-Radio, 91.1 FM in Atlanta, and online at www.wrek.org. Fans may also follow along online, either by livestats at www.ramblinwreck.com, or via live video at gatech.playonsports.tv.
Kellogg joined Alexandra Preiss and Cris Omiecinski as the only players in school history to ever record a perfect hitting percentage with 10 or more attack attempts. Omiecinski set the record in 1992 when she was a perfect 10-for-10 against West Georgia, and Preiss broke it with an 11-for-11 performance vs. Virginia in 2003.
One night after hitting a season-high .458 vs. South Florida, the Yellow Jacket offense hit .516 against the Hatters, including a .682 clip in the first game of the evening. Tech won six of the first seven points in game one with three kills by Kellogg and one apiece by Kaminskas and Ulrike Stegemann. The Jackets also had six service aces in the game, including four by Lindsey Gray and one by both Kaminskas and Stephanie Robbins.
With game two tied at 8-8, the Yellow Jackets scored four-straight points on a pair of kills by Kaminskas, an attack error by Stetson’s leading hitter Rebecca Orzechowicz, and a service ace by Allie Niekamp to take a permanent lead in the frame. The Hatters would pull within 27-24 late in the game, but the Jackets won the last four points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Orzechowicz finished the match with 12 kills for Stetson.
Neither of the two teams led by more than three points in the final game, and the Jackets didn’t earn their first lead of the game until a kill by Chrissy DeMichelis gave Tech an 18-17 lead. After that play, the two teams traded serves until an attack error by Beth Slabaugh gave the Yellow Jackets a 24-22 lead late in the game. Stetson tied the game at 26-26 on a kill by Julie Fleming and then took the lead on an attack error by DeMichelis. The Yellow Jackets responded by scoring four of the final five points of the match with kills by Kaminskas and Gray, an attack error by Slabaugh and a service ace by Kaminskas which sealed the victory for Tech, 30-28.
