Oct. 26, 2010
ATLANTA – Junior Bailey Hunter and sophomore Monique Mead combined for 25 kills as the Georgia Tech Volleyball team (14-9) fell to Middle Tennessee State (21-5), 3-1 (17-25, 15-25, 25-13, 21-25) Tuesday night at O’Keefe Gym.
Hunter led the Yellow Jackets with 13 kills and hit a team-best .524 on the night. Mead added 12 kills for the Jackets to go along with six digs and three total blocks. Sophomore Alexis Woodson added seven kills and five total blocks, while junior Asia Stawicka and freshman Jennifer Percy had six kills apiece for Tech as it hit just .193 for the match. Senior Mary Ashley Tippins led the offense with 37 assists and senior Jordan McCullers had a team-best 13 digs. Georgia Tech had 10 blocks on the night.
A 4-0 run by Middle Tennessee State early in the first set gave it a three-point lead and the Yellow Jackets were never able to muster a run to get any closer than two points the rest of the way. Every time the Jackets ran off two straight points and looked to be gaining some momentum, MTSU ended it. It was 20-17 Blue Raiders when they reeled off the final five points to win the set 25-17. Mead led the Jackets with four kills, but the Blue Raiders hit .531 compared to Tech’s .161.
In the second set, Middle Tennessee State used a 6-0 run to open up an early 12-5 lead. Tech tried to chip away and scored four straight points to get within a pair at 13-11. That would be as close as Georgia Tech could get, however. For the second straight set, the Blue Raiders closed out on a big run and went on to win 25-15. This time, it was an 11-3 run that saw Middle Tennessee State pull away and take a 2-0 lead for the match. Georgia Tech hit just -.032 in the second stanza while Middle Tennessee State hit .400 and had four blocks.
The third set was a completely different story as the Yellow Jackets jumped out to a 5-1 lead and never looked back en route to a 25-13 win. It was soon 12-6 when the Blue Raiders called for timeout. The timeout did not stop the run as Tech scored 11 of the next 14 points to make it a 23-9 score. Middle Tennessee State went on a mini run to try and get back in it but it was not enough as the Jackets went on to win and pull within a set at 2-1. The Yellow Jackets hit .462 in the set while MTSU cooled off to .049. Mead and Hunter had four kills apiece for Tech.
The fourth set was wild as each team had big swings. Middle Tennessee State jumped out to a five-point lead at 13-8 before a 10-4 run by the Yellow Jackets gave them the lead back at 18-17. The teams traded the next few points but Middle Tennessee broke a 20-20 tie by scoring four of the final five points to win 25-21.
Georgia Tech hits the road this weekend for the first of two trips to the state of North Carolina in the next month. The Yellow Jackets will play at Wake Forest on Friday night and then Duke on Saturday night. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. and you can follow all of the action with live stats at RamblinWreck.com.
