Oct. 23, 2009
ATLANTA – Senior Chrissy DeMichelis and sophomore Bailey Hunter had 10 kills apiece as the Georgia Tech Volleyball team (14-6, 8-2 ACC) defeated Wake Forest (7-14, 5-5), 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-13) Friday night at O’Keefe Gym. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improve to 11-0 at home.
“As a team, we played really well tonight,” said head coach Tonya Johnson. “One of the things I was especially pleased with was our blocking. It was a great defensive effort on our part. Offensively, I think it was a solid all-around effort as a team. We face a very good team in Duke tomorrow night and are certainly going to have to execute a little better on the offensive side. Its going to be a great match and our kids are going to come out ready to play.”
The Yellow Jackets held Wake Forest to just a .011 hitting percentage for the night. Hunter notched her 17th straight match with at least 10 kills as she hit .318. The Yellow Jackets had 12 blocks in the match, including two solo ones by DeMichelis. Junior Mary Ashley Tippins had five total blocks as well as 29 assists.
Sophomore Asia Stawicka added seven kills on .545 hitting as well as five total blocks. Freshman Monique Mead had eight kills and junior Jordan McCullers added a team-high 16 digs.
In the first set, Wake Forest held an early 3-1 lead but the Yellow Jackets held them to just 11 points the rest of the way en route to a 25-14 win. It was an 11-1 Tech run that secured them the first set. Hunter led the Jackets with five kills in the first set as they hit just .125, but held the Demon Deacons to -.125.
In the second set, the Yellow Jackets hit .366 and cruised to a 25-18 win. Tech jumped out to an early 8-3 lead but saw Wake storm back with seven straight points and force a Jacket timeout up 10-8. It was soon 12-12, when Tech used a 7-0 run to take control of the match and a 2-0 lead heading into the locker room. Mead led the Yellow Jackets with six kills in the set, while DeMichelis had five.
The third set saw Hunter lead the way for the Jackets with four kills. The set was tied at six apiece before an 8-2 Tech run gave it a six-point lead and forced a Wake Forest timeout. The Deacons got within four points at 14-10, but that would be it. Tech closed out the set on an 11-3 run to complete the sweep.
Georgia Tech will “Dig for the Cure” tomorrow night against Duke in its fourth annual fund raiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The match begins at 7 p.m. at O’Keefe Gym but make sure to arrive early to participate in several raffles going on as the Yellow Jackets raise money for breast cancer awareness. There will also be representatives set up in the lobby to take donations. Tech and Duke enter the night tied for second place in the ACC.
The Jackets will be wearing special pink jerseys designed by Russell. After the match, each player will autograph their jersey and they will be auctioned off at auctions.RamblinWreck.com with all proceeds benefitting the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
