May 7, 2016
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – The Georgia Tech volleyball team swept the competition Saturday to win the Tijuca Tournament hosted at the Tijuca Tennis Club in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In a best of three sets format, the Jackets defeated Flamengo, 25-13 and 25-23, Botafogo, 25-15 and 25-19, and Tijuca, 25-15 and 25-22.
“I think we played consistent,” head coach Michelle Collier said. “It’s really cool because Brazilian teams have really good fundamentals and those are some of the things we emphasize in practice, so being able to see that we’ve done that at a very high level is really reassuring for us that we’re on the right track and doing the right things.
“We played great volleyball. We’re learning the game, and enjoying it, and it’s really satisfying as a coach to seem them playing the game that way.”
In the first match of the morning against Flamengo, Teegan Van Gunst led the Jackets with seven kills, and Annika Van Gunst added six with Gabriela Stavnetchei of Curituba, Brazil pitching in three. Annika Van Gunst had eight digs to hold down the back row.
The Jackets were in control for the first set, and the second set was a back and forth battled in which Georgia Tech broke away at 23-23 to win the set 25-23.
Against Botafogo, the Jackets took a 13-6 lead and never looked back in set one. Game two was tied at 11-11 before the Jackets opened up a lead to 20-17 and eventually won the set 25-19.
Teegan Van Gunst tallied 11 kills and six digs against Botafogo, while Stavnetchei put down eight kills.
In the final match of the tournament, Georgia Tech defeated Tijuca by a comfortable 10-point margin in game one, before Tijuca fought back in game two. The Jackets trailed Tijuca 12-10 and rallied back to take a three-point lead 23-20, and put the set away 25-22.
London Ackermann tallied six digs to lead the Georgia Tech back-row defense, and Teegan Van Gunst (7 kills) and Annika Van Gunst (6) led the Jackets’ offense.
