No. 8 Georgia Tech Falls to No. 7 Pitt

THE FLATS – No. 8 Georgia Tech volleyball (21-4, 12-3 ACC) suffered a Top 10 loss inside O’Keefe Gymnasium on Friday evening, falling to No. 7 Pitt (22-4, 13-2 ACC) in three sets.

QUICK HITS

• Tech falls to 12-3 in conference play this season, still tied for the best 15-match start to ACC play in the Michelle Collier era (since 2014).
• Junior outside hitter Bianca Bertolino delivered 13 kills on .579 hitting with two aces and a team-high seven digs.
• She sets a new career high with her .579 hitting percentage, the highest hitting percentage of any Jacket this season in an ACC match.
• Bertolino delivered a pair of aces to bring her season total to 58. She is now just six aces away from tying Julia Bergmann’s modern scoring era program record of 64, set back in 2019.
• This was only the second time Tech has lost a match after dropping the opening set this season, falling to 4-2 in that scenario.

Set By Set

Set 1 (Pitt, 25-13): Pitt scored the first 10 points of the set as the Jackets made some uncharacteristic errors in serve-receive. The Jackets battled through the remainder of the set but couldn’t close the gap to less than five, eventually falling by 12 points. Bertolino made four kills on five swings in the loss.

Set 2 (Pitt, 25-14): The Panthers made another long scoring run in the middle of the second to take a 16-8 lead, which they would hold onto for the remainder of the set. Tech struggled to find consistency in serve-receive as the Panthers sided out at 92 percent. Bertolino finished with five kills and her first ace of the night. She also added in five digs, but difficulty passing and attacking errors doomed the Jackets as Pitt took a two-set lead.

Set 3 (Pitt, 25-19): Michelle Collier tried a multitude of different lineups in the third set but the improvements on offense were not matched defensively as the Panthers executed at a very efficient rate, erasing an early 12-7 Tech advantage and using a late 9-0 scoring run to end the match in three.

UP NEXT
Georgia Tech will have the rest of the weekend to rest up before heading to Miami for a Friday night match against the Hurricanes (16-8, 9-5 ACC). That match will start at 7 p.m. from Coral Gables and will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

Competitive Drive Initiative Turn 2

Looking to build on the success of last year’s Competitive Drive Initiative, Georgia Tech, the Georgia Tech Foundation and Georgia Tech athletics are partnering once again to launch Competitive Drive Initiative Turn 2. CDI Turn 2 has a goal of raising $2.5 million in new gifts to the Alexander-Tharpe Fund’s Athletic Scholarship Fund by Dec. 31, and Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Foundation will match eligible gifts to accelerate the impact for Tech athletics. Like last year, not only will gifts to CDI Turn 2 be matched, but so will the contributor’s benefits in the way of A-T Fund giving levels and priority points. To learn more and contribute online, visit atfund.org/turn2.

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