Nov. 7, 2003
After a win over Duke on Tuesday, the seventh-ranked Georgia Tech volleyball team (24-1, 12-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) returns to action in O’Keefe Gymnasium to host two ACC matches against Florida State (14-12, 4-8 ACC) Saturday at 6 p.m. and Wake Forest (19-7, 8-5 ACC) Sunday at 2 p.m.
“Our win over Duke was a good start to this week,” said head coach Bond Shymansky. “We are working at rebuilding our confidence and desire to work hard and we have to do that one day at a time and certainly Tuesday was a start to that goal.”
Saturday evening, the Yellow Jackets will face the Seminoles in a match that will be broadcast live on WREK radio (91.1 FM) in the Atlanta area beginning at 5:45 p.m. and also have live audio streaming at www.wrek.org. Fans may also follow livestats at www.ramblinwreck.com.
The Yellow Jackets lead the all-time series between the two schools, 20-6, including eight of the last 10 meetings. Earlier this year, the teams met in Tallahasse with Tech winning in three games, 32-30, 30-24, 30-22. In that match, Lynnette Moster and Alexandra Preiss each connected for 11 kills while Jayme Gergen added 10 kills and five blocks. As a team, the Jackets hit .308 while holding the Seminoles to a .108 hitting percentage.
“Florida State is a team that has improved a great deal over the last few weeks. They have figured out their setting position by utilizing both setters and getting the block that they want in the front row and also the offensive firepower that they have out of Jennifer Anderson’s leadership. Their coach has done a great job of getting his team to work really hard and they play with a great deal of inspiration and I expect they’ll be tough for us to handle this Saturday.”
On Sunday, Tech will return to action and face Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons and the Jackets have met 21 times with Tech holding the edge, 15-6. The last time Wake Forest defeated Tech was during the 1999 season. In their previous meeting this season, the Jackets defeated the Demon Deacons in three games, 33-31, 30-21, 30-27. Alexandra Preiss led Tech that night, recording 12 kills on 23 attempts and hitting .522 and posting five blocks.
“Wake Forest has a very good player in Valerie Rydberg. She tends to get the most attempts of anybody on their team and is the sparkplug of their team. But, they also have two very good hitters in Christy Williams and Kim Stern and their offense is very tough to contain when it’s clicking.”
“We’ve been spending a lot of time on passing this week and are trying to speed our offense up and diversify it some,” said Shymansky. “But, I think our biggest goal this weekend is to maintain our gritty defense and aggressiveness at the net in these matches.”
