Nov. 22, 2003
Lauren Sauer recorded 19 kills, hit .421 and had five blocks as the No. 6 Georgia Tech volleyball team defeated Virginia, 30-23, 30-20, 30-20 in the semifinal match of the ACC Tournament. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improve to 30-1 while the Cavaliers fall to 25-9 on the season.
Tech, the defending champion, now advances to the ACC Championship final, where the Jackets will face Maryland Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in a match that will be televised live by Fox Sports Net South.
“I thought that we played much better today and did a much better job of siding out and playing good defense. Lauren was obviously the story of the game and was dominating as a hitter and a blocker today. I also thought that Laura played very well and that Kele did a fantastic job of getting her involved in the offense. Defensively, both Marisa and Jennifer had great games for us today and we’ll need them to be just as sharp tomorrow. We are excited to be playing for an ACC title tomorrow and look forward to the challenge of facing Maryland or Clemson.”
Offensively, the Jackets were strong, posting a .289 hitting percentage while holding the Cavaliers to a .113 percentage for the match. In addition to Sauer, Laura Kuhn recorded 10 kills and hit a match-high .600 while Jayme Gergen posted nine kills and Alexandra Preiss had eight. Eveland recorded 45 assists in the match and now needs only five assists to become Georgia Tech’s and the ACC career assist leader.
Defensively, Tech posted 57 digs in the match while Virginia had only 42. Jennifer Randall led all players in the match with 16 while Marisa Aston followed with 13. At the net, Tech was tough as Gergen had five block assists, followed by Preiss and Eveland who each had two blocks.
In game one, the Jackets built a 16-10 lead on two kills from Sauer and a stuff block from Preiss and Sauer. Tech maintained its’ lead and went up 26-18 on a kill from Gergen and from Kuhn and then was able to finish out the game on a Cavalier service error to win the game, 30-23. Tech hit .242 in the game while holding Virginia to a .028 percentage.
Game two saw Tech fall behind early 4-0, but after a service error by the Cavaliers, the Jackets scored on two straight kills from Sauer and a stuff block from Sauer and Gergen to tie the game at 4-4. That was really all the Jackets needed, as their offense began clicking and they forced Virginia into several hitting errors giving Tech a 25-16 lead. Two final kills from Sauer gave the Jackets the game, 30-20.
Tech maintained their momentum and took it into game three, taking an early 6-3 lead on a kill from Sauer. Virginia climbed back into the game and made the score 9-8 on a kill from Shannon Boyle, but Tech scored on a solo block from Sauer and a stuff block from Gergen and Kuhn to take a 12-8 lead and never looked back, winning the final game 30-20.
