Sept. 9, 2005
Led by middle blockers Callie Miller and Ulrike Stegemann, who combined for 23 kills and 10 blocks, the Georgia Tech volleyball team posted a 3-1 (28-30, 30-27, 30-22, 30-28) win over George Washington in its season home opener at the Georgia Tech Renaissance Invitational Friday night. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improve to 2-2 on the season while the Colonials fall to 2-4.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action Saturday when they face Long Island University (2-4) at 12 p.m. and Western Kentucky (6-1) in the Georgia Tech Renaissance Invitational in O’Keefe Gymnasium.
“This was a great crowd and atmosphere for our season home opener and as usual, our fans helped us to a win tonight,” said head coach Bond Shymansky. “I thought after dropping game one, our team worked hard at cutting down on our errors and came back nicely to win the last three games. Our middle blockers were the difference tonight, both offensively and at the net. In addition, Lindsey Gray did a fantastic job and made some key plays for us on defense and then on the front row late in the match. We will have our work cut out for us tomorrow, but this was a good start to the tournament for us.”
Tech’s offense improved dramatically as the match progressed. After hitting only .125 in game, the Jackets hit .244 in game two, .241 in game three and .225 in the last game, to end the match with a .203 hitting percentage. Abby Showers led the way, hitting .312 while recording seven kills and two hitting errors. She was followed by Miller and Talisa Kellogg who each had a match-high 12 kills while Stegemann and Laura DeMichelis each posted 11 kills for Tech. Lindsey Laband notched a season-high six kills while hitting .625 in addition to recording 48 assists.
Another key difference in the match was at the net, as the Jackets had 13.5 blocks to the Colonials nine. Miller and Stegemann led the way, each recording five blocks while DeMichelis has four blocks and Laband notched three.
Defensively the Jackets were led by Jennifer Randall who had 17 digs, followed by Showers who recorded 11 and Laband and Gray who each notched eight.
Winthrop was led by Lindsey Verand who recorded 12 kills and four blocks in the match, followed by Janine Brown who had 11 kills and three blocks.
