Nov. 22, 2006
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech volleyball team (20-10, 12-8 ACC) wraps up its regular season this weekend with home matches against Virginia Tech (16-13, 10-10 ACC) Friday at 7 p.m. and versus Virginia (22-7, 15-5 ACC) Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tech has won its last nine matches, and 12 of the last 14.
Saturday will also mark the final home match for Georgia Tech’s senior libero Abby Showers, who earned her 1,000th career dig this past weekend. The Vandalia, Ohio native has played in over 100 matches in her career on the Flats, playing everything from setter to the right side and outside hitter to the defensive specialist positions. Showers has amassed a total of 1,022 digs over the last four years, an average of 2.84 per game, while playing in a total of 360 games. She leads her team against two teams that stand in the top half of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings
The Hokies enter the weekend at sixth place in the conference standings, and will face Clemson Wednesday night before closing out their season with the trip to Atlanta. Tech is 4-2 against Virginia Tech and owns a 3-1 record versus the Hokies under head coach Bond Shymansky, including a 3-0 victory in Blacksburg earlier this season. Friday’s match will also mark the return of former Yellow Jacket standout Jayme Gergen, an honorable mention All-America for Georgia Tech in 2004 who now serves as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech.
Tech will close out its regular season by hosting the league’s second-place team, Virginia, who will face Clemson Friday before concluding their regular season in Atlanta. The Cavaliers have won nine of their last 10 matches, with their only loss coming against ACC Champion Duke last weekend. The Jackets’ current winning streak began with a 3-2 victory over then-25th-ranked Duke Oct. 27.
The Jackets are 24-15 against Virginia, and own a 9-1 mark versus the Cavaliers under Shymansky.
The Jackets currently stand fourth in the conference, and are looking to close out the season with a pair of victories in hopes of securing an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The field for the championship will be announced Sunday on ESPNews between 3 and 3:30 p.m.
