Nov. 21, 2007
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Ulrike Stegemann hit .426 and notched a career-high 28 kills while Chrissy DeMichelis tallied 20 kills for the sixth time this season as Georgia Tech held off a late Boston College charge to win, 3-2 (30-20, 23-30, 30-28, 30-32, 16-14), Wednesday evening at Power Gym in Conte Forum. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improved to 22-9 on the season and 16-5 in the ACC. Boston College fell to 14-17 and 8-13 in the league.
With the fifth game tied at 14-14, DeMichelis pounded down her 20th kill of the match to give Tech the one-point lead before teaming with Nikki Kaminskas to block Abigail Hasebroock’s attack attempt on match point to give the Jackets their seventh-consecutive win, and 11th in its last 12 matches. .
DeMichelis and Kaminskas led Tech with five total blocks apiece, while Stegemann posted four block assists in addition to tallying 13 digs to notch her sixth double-double of the season. She also had two service aces and three assists in the match.
Michelle Kandell led the Jackets with 25 digs against the Eagles, while Jordan McCullers and Lindsey Gray added 14 and 10 digs, respectively.
Talisa Kellogg joined DeMichelis and Stegemann in double-figures with 16 kills, while Allie Niekamp tied her career-high with 71 assists and had seven digs on the night.
With an 11-10 lead, Georgia Tech went on a 7-1 run to take a seven-point lead and polished off a 30-20 opening game victory by winning seven of the last eight points of the frame. The Jackets hit .415 with 22 kills, including seven apiece by DeMichelis and Stegemann, while Boston College managed just a .146 hitting clip.
After Tech pulled within two points at 21-19 in game two, the Eagles scored five unanswered points to take a seven-point lead which they wouldn’t relinquish, as Boston College went on to tie the match at 1-1 with a 30-23 victory. The Eagles hit .342 and were led by Kelsey Johnson and Tori Thompson, who combined for 11 kills in the frame.
The Eagles jumped out to an early 7-3 lead in game three but Tech eventually came back to tie the frame at 23-23 on a solo block by Erin Birmingham. Boston College proceeded to score four unanswered points to pull within three points of winning the game, but the Yellow Jackets mounted another comeback, answering with four unanswered points of their own on a pair of kills by Stegemann and a service ace by Allie Niekamp following a service error by Thompson. After Johnson’s kill made it 28-27 in the Eagles’ favor, Tech received a kill from Kellogg and a block by Birmingham and Stegemann before Thompson’s attacking error gave the Jackets the 30-28 game three victory.
Leading 29-25, the Jackets needed just one point to polish off the Eagles in four games, but Boston College scored five-straight points to take its first lead of the match at 30-29. After the Jackets tied the game on a kill by Kellogg, the Eagles’ Audrey Eichler gave BC the 31-30 edge before Kellogg’s cross-court attack sailed wide to force a fifth game.
The Yellow Jackets will wrap up the regular season Friday in Maryland when they face the Terrapins at 2 p.m. at Comcast Center Pavilion. Live stats for that match will be available at RamblinWreck.com.
