Oct. 30, 2010
DURHAM, N.C. – Junior Bailey Hunter had 13 kills and sophomore Monique Mead added 10, but the Georgia Tech Volleyball team (15-10, 8-5 ACC) lost to Duke (19-4, 11-2), 3-0 (19-25, 24-26, 23-25), Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The loss snaps Tech’s five-match winning streak on the road.
Georgia Tech hit .252 on the night as Hunter led the team in kills for the second straight match. She had 13 of them on .276 hitting to go along with three digs. Mead added 10 kills on .273 hitting, nine digs and five total blocks. Sophomore Alexis Woodson added eight kills and hit .615 for Tech while freshman Jennifer Percy chipped in with seven kills.
Senior Jordan McCullers had 11 digs on the night and moved into eighth place on the all-time Tech charts with 1,336 in her career as she passed Cris Omiecinski. Senior Mary Ashley Tippins paced the offense with 38 assists to go along with six digs and three total blocks. Junior Asia Stawicka also added five total blocks, four kills and three digs. Sophomore Susan Carlson had nine digs and sophomore Nicki Meyer had a career-high eight for the Yellow Jackets as they had 51 on the night.
In the first set, Duke used an early 4-0 run to take the lead and had Georgia Tech playing catch up for the rest of the set. The Yellow Jackets were down by as many as seven points and never able to muster a long run to get back in it. Tech got as close as five points, but Duke went on to win 25-19. The Jackets hit .235 and were led by five kills from Woodson and three by Percy. Duke hit .333.
Georgia Tech used two different 4-0 runs early in the second set to open up an 11-5 lead. Duke came right back, however, and went on an 8-2 run of its own to tie the set at 13. The two teams then traded the next several points as there were five separate ties until Duke opened up a 22-19 lead. The Yellow Jackets answered and held set point at 24-23 before three straight Duke points gave the Blue Devils a 26-24 win and 2-0 lead for the match. Hunter led Tech with eight kills as the Jackets hit .293. Duke, meanwhile, hit .267.
Just like in the second set, Georgia Tech opened the third set on a 4-0 run. The Blue Devils answered quickly and went on a 7-2 spurt to take the lead. Duke soon built up a five-point lead at 16-11 but the Yellow Jackets answered with a 6-1 run to knot the score at 17. The Blue Devils ran off four straight to go up 21-17 and fought off one last Tech charge for the 25-23 win. The Jackets pulled within a point on two different occasions but Duke hung on for the win to complete the sweep of the match and season series against Tech.
Georgia Tech returns home to host the ACC’s Florida schools next weekend at O’Keefe Gym as the Yellow Jackets will face Florida State on Friday night and then Miami Saturday evening. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. Live video will be available at RamblinWreck.com and the match will also be broadcast on WREK, 91.1 FM in Atlanta and online at RamblinWreck.com.
