Nov. 1, 2003
Despite holding a two games to none lead, the No. 4 Yellow Jacket volleyball team was upset by Maryland Saturday night in five games, 30-28, 30-24, 24-30, 28-30, 12-15. The loss snaps the Jackets’ 23 match win streak and gives Tech their first loss of the season. Tech now stands at 23-1, 10-1 ACC while the Terrapins improve to 21-5, 10-2 ACC.
“It’s always tough losing, especially when it’s your first loss in such a long time,” said head coach Bond Shymansky. “We couldn’t stop their outside attack and it was as simple as that. Maryland worked very hard defensively and never let up on us even though we were up two games to none. We clearly have deficiencies that we need to work on as we prepare for the final push in the regular season.”
In the match, Alexandra Preiss recorded a career high 27 kills while hitting .556 and she was followed by Jayme Gergen who also notched a career-high 19 kills and hit .515. Kele Eveland recorded a season-high 78 assists in the match while helping the Jackets hit .313. At the net, Tech was only able to record 7 blocks and one service ace. Defensively, Marisa Aston had 21 digs and she was followed by Jennifer Randall who had 14. Lynnette Moster recorded her 13th double-double of the year with 16 kills and 13 digs.
Maryland’s offense was tough for the Jackets to contain as the outside hitting combination of Maria DiLivio and Sarah Treadwell combined for 34 kills and hit over .400. As a team, they hit .295 and recorded 14 team blocks. Stephanie Smith had seven block assists in the match along with 13 kills while Rachel Wagener had 19 kills, hit .552 and had five blocks.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action Tuesday when they take on Duke in O’Keefe Gymnasium at 7 p.m.
