Oct. 6, 2012
THE FLATS – Now a perfect 9-0 at home, the Georgia Tech volleyball team (13-4, 5-2 ACC ) swept the Virginia Cavaliers (5-12, 0-7) by scores of 29-27, 25-11, 25-20. The 25-11 victory in game two was Tech’s largest margin of victory this season.
Monique Mead led the Yellow Jackets with 12 kills and Annie Czarnecki had seven blocks. Jennifer Percy went 8-for-16 with just one error for a .438 hitting percentage and Chanell Clark-Bibbs had six kills, one ace and three blocks of her own.
The first game was a back-and-forth battle, featuring 17 tied scores and nine lead changes. Virginia hit just .086 in the game, while the Yellow Jackets were a little bit better at a .194 clip.
“It thought we came out a little flat tonight, but I thought we responded in the end,” head coach Tonya Johnson said. “We didn’t pass well enough to get our middles the ball and that’s going to be something we will have to work on this week. I thought we served fairly tough and put them out of system.”
Georgia Tech jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the second game behind the serve of Kaleigh Colson, two Cavalier attacking errors, a pair of kills by Mead and a kill by Bailey Hunter.
Tech kept the pressure on throughout the set, going more than double on Virginia with a 21-10 lead. The Yellow Jackets put the set away on three-straight points.
“We never let them get into a rhythm,” Johnson said. “I’m proud of our kids responding after last weekend. We need to keep pressing, keep getting better, and that is certainly a goal next week at practice.”
Set three was up and down again. Tech held a 10-6 with four unanswered points thanks to the service of Clark-Bibbs, but the Cavaliers chipped away and tied the score up 14-14. The Yellow Jackets took the final lead, 23-19, again behind the serve of Clark-Bibbs and put the match away 25-20 on a kill by Hunter.
“We got a rhythm going and I thought we were really good in set two and we were up and down in set three,” Johnson said. “I think it’s important to keep things in perspective just trying to get them to understand that we don’t have to be great every night to win. We just have to play well enough to win. We did that tonight.”
The Yellow Jackets are back in action next weekend in North Carolina with matches against Wake Forest on Friday and at Duke Saturday. Both contests are slated for 7 p.m. starts.
