No. 16 Tech Takes Yellow Jackets' First West Coast Trip to Play Cal and No. 6 Stanford

THE FLATS – No. 16 Georgia Tech volleyball (17-4, 9-3 ACC) concludes its four-game ACC road stand with Cal Friday at 10 p.m. ET and No. 6 Stanford Saturday at 10 p.m. ET.

Tech most recently pulled off back-to-back five-set road wins the first of which was against Duke and the second against No. 25 UNC, which was the program’s third top-25 win of the season.  

Week Schedule

• Friday, Nov. 8 | No. 16 Georgia Tech vs. Cal | 10 p.m. ET | ACCNX | Watch | Live Stats 
• Saturday, Nov. 9 | No. 16 Georgia Tech vs. No. 6 Stanford | 10 p.m. ET | ACCNX | Watch | Live Stats 

Storylines

• This is head coach Michelle Collier’s 11th season on The Flats, tying AVCA Hall of Famer Shelton Collier for the longest tenured coach in program history. At GT, she has 214 wins (2nd most behind Shelton Collier), 120 ACC victories (program record) seven NCAA Tournament match victories (program record) & is the first coach to have led the Jackets to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
• Tech remains in the top-25 polls for the 81^st consecutive week and within the top-20 rankings for the 58^th consecutive week after being ranked 16th for the second week.
• This will be Tech’s third match in the overall series against Stanford, the first in almost three decades with the last meeting being back in 1995.
• The Yellow Jackets sit 1-0 over California in the overall series after their lone meeting in the 2003 season where Tech won 3-1 in Dallas, Texas.
• Senior Bianca Bertolino is 13th in the nation and sixth among P4 players with .56 aces/set this year. She has cracked the GT Top 10 for career aces (6th-160) and is on pace to set a modern scoring era record for aces/set for a career.
• She is currently on a seven-game double-double streak which started back in October against Virginia.
• Bertolino and senior Tamara Otene lead the team in kills this season with 272 respectively, both sitting with 3.49 kills/set.
• Otene recently pulled off a historic feat with the help of Luanna Emiliano, as the two Jackets were the first in program history to record 20/20 double-doubles in the same match against Duke on Friday (Otene: 27 kills, 21 digs; Emiliano: 37 assists, 20 digs).
• Otene stands as the only player in the modern scoring era with multiple 20/20 double-doubles and is now tied for 2nd most in program history (3) one away from tying Cris Omiecinski (1992-95) for the most, all-time.
• Junior libero Sofia Velez has continued to be a force to be reckoned with in the Yellow Jackets’ defensive efforts, marking 4.6 D/set last week.
• Velez has now recorded 10 or more digs in 96 of her 100 collegiate matches and has recorded 10 or more digs in the last nine consecutive matches
• The transfer has recorded single digit digs in only three matches, all of which were against top-25 opponents (7 vs. Florida, 5 vs. SMU, and 6 vs. Pitt).
• Senior DeAndra Pierce most recently recorded 12 kills against No. 25 ranked UNC, which was not only her first match of the season with double-digit kills, but also a new career-high.
• Tech heads into this week’s contests with a 6-1 road record on the season, with its last road loss being back on Oct. 6 against No. 4 Louisville.
• The Yellow Jackets continue to ride their eight-game ACC win streak which is the longest win streak since the 2021 season, which saw a 10-game ACC win streak.
• Georgia Tech volleyball creeps up on its 900^th program victory as it currently sits with 890 wins with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

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