Sept. 3, 2004
At the Badger Challenge in Madison, Wisc., the No. 12 Georgia Tech volleyball team dropped a 3-1 match to Purdue, 27-30, 26-30, 30-27, 28-30. Lynnette Moster had 21 kills and 13 digs to lead the Jackets, who fall to 0-3 on the season, while the Boilermakers improve to 2-0 on the season. The Yellow Jackets will return to action Saturday when they take on host No. 23 Wisconsin at 8 p.m. ET.
“I give Purdue a lot of credit tonight,” said head coach Bond Shymansky. “They came out from the start of the match and really executed their offense and also played outstanding defense. I thought we came out a little slow in games one and two and in rally scoring, you just can’t do that if you expect to win. After winning game three, we continued to play well, but then had a rotation in which we just couldn’t get out of and that was the difference in the game. We showed some positive things at time tonight, now we just have to put them all together. We’ll have our work cut out for us tomorrow night against a very good Wisconsin team, but our team is excited about getting a chance play again quickly.”
Offensively, Purdue outhit the Jackets .271 to .260 as Kim McConaha posted 21 kills and hit .463, followed by Leah Wischmeier who had 14 kills. The setter Renata Dargan really hurt the Jackets, recording 13 kills and 55 assists in the match.
For Tech, Jayme Gergen and Laura Kuhn each had 14 kills in the match while Lauren Sauer had 12 and Ulrike Stegeman had seven. Laband posted a career high 59 assists in the match along with three kills.
Defensively, Tech had 72 digs in the match as Marisa Aston had 17, followed by Jennifer Randall who had 14. At the net, Stegemann notched four block assists, followed by Kuhn who had three and Moster who had three total blocks.
In game one, the Jackets fell behind 14-7 on several hitting errors and effective offense by the Boilermakers. A kill from Moster made the score 10-17 and then Laband went back and served two points to close the gap to 12-17. The Boilermakers responded with a kill from McConaha to make it 12-18. With the score 23-27, Kuhn posted two straight kills, forcing Purdue into a timeout at 25-27. A dump to the middle of the court by Dargan gave Purdue the serve back and a 28-25 lead. It would be as close as the Jackets would get as two kills by Wischmeier gave Purdue the game, 30-27. In the game, Tech hit .271 in the game, but could not stop the Boilermakers as they hit .450.
Game two started off much like the first game, with Tech falling behind 4-12 on hitting errors and missed serves. Behind the defense and hitting of Moster, the Jackets began to mount a comeback, tying the game at 24-24. After a Purdue timeout, Wischmeier connected on two kills and the setter recorded a dump, giving the Boilermakers a 27-24 lead. After a Yellow Jacket timeout, Sauer responded with a kill down the line, but another kill from Wischmeier and a kill from the backrow from McConaha gave Purdue the game, 30-26.
The Jackets regrouped in game three, jumping out to a 6-3 lead on kills from Moster and Gergen. Purdue fought back to tie the game at nine a piece and then built a 13-11 lead on a setter dump and a kill down the line by Jacques and a hitting error from Kuhn. With the score 18-17 Tech, Stegemann and Kuhn combined for a stuff block and a hitting error by the setter forced Purdue into a timeout at 20-17. Purdue would then tie the score at 25-25 on a ballhandling error from Laband, but a kill from Moster and a ball handling error from Dargan forced another Boilermaker timeout at 27-25. After the timeout, McConaha recorded her fourth kill of the game, but Tech came right back with a kill down the middle of the net to take a 28-26 lead. After a kill from Purdue, Moster recorded her fifth kill of the game and a Boilermaker hitting error gave the Jackets the game, 30-27.
Tech carried its momentum into the fourth game, building a 14-10 lead on kills from Moster and Kuhn. After a setter dump from Dargan, her 10th of the match, McConaha went back to serve eight straight points, scoring on hitting errors from Sauer, two more kills from Dargan , a service ace and a ballhandling error from Laband. Tech finally scored on a kill off the block from Sauer and then mounted a comeback, tying the score at 22-22 with kills from Kuhn, Moster and Sauer. But, Dargan recorded her 13th kill of the match and a hitting error from Moster gave Purdue a 24-22 lead. Tech would keep it close, siding out on a kill from Moster to make the score 28-29, but a kill from Mader gave Purdue the game, 30-28.
