Nov. 11, 2007
Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to conference opponent Connecticut today in McDonough Arena as they played the final home contest of the season as well as the final regular-season BIG EAST matchup. The Hoyas are now 5-25 with a 1-13 mark in league action while the Huskies improve to 18-10 with an 8-6 slate in BE play. Game scores were 22-30, 28-30, 23-30. For the match, a trio of Hoyas led the team with seven kills apiece in junior Katherine Niesen (Gainesville, Fla./Eastside) and sophomores Jessica Hardy (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa) and Kortney Robinson (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleasant Grove) with Niesen hitting an impressive .417 on 12 attempts. Sophomore Courtney Cohen continued her excellent play from Friday night as she turned in six kills and a .267 hitting percentage. In game one, Georgetown took a quick 7-0 lead behind Niesen's serve with two service aces nestled within and looked as though they were posed to have a stellar afternoon. However, a retorting six-point run from the Huskies set the tone for the match. As the Huskies notched 16 kills on 34 attempts for a team hitting percentage of .265 opposing Georgetown's lackluster .065 performance on 10 kills, they were able to take the first game despite the impressive Hoya start. Game two saw an improved Georgetown team as they upped the kill count to 13 and hit .205 for the frame. The Huskies took a quick four-point lead (6-2) but heightened play form the Blue and Gray including two assisted blocking efforts from sophomore Kiersten McKoy (Oakland, Calif./Bishop O'Dowd) and junior Caitlin Boland (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) propelled the Hoyas to win six-straight points behind the serve of Cohen to take a 9-6 lead prompting a UConn timeout. The break was just what the Huskies needed as they picked up nine of the next 12 points including three-straight kills from UConn's Gina Heiderman to regain a four-point lead (16-12). Kills from Niesen and Hardy and costly errors from the Huskies knotted the game at 18. The two teams would trade points until another wayward play from the Huskies and two-consecutive kills from Niesen and Boland gave the Hoyas their first lead (23-22) since leading 9-8. GU was able to pull ahead on a kill from Hardy (25-24) but Connecticut tallied two-straight kills for the lead. The Hoyas tied it once again at 26 with a shared blocking effort from Niesen and Robinson. A key kill from Cohen tied the game at 28 but the Hoyas fell short when the Huskies tallied a critical shared block and a kill to end game two.
The Hoyas fell behind in game three, 14-5, as Georgetown called its first timeout. Play was steady leading into the Hoyas' second timeout as UConn led 24-11. Robinson and Hardy tallied three kills in the final frame and Robinson added three digs and two shared blocking efforts but it was not enough as Connecticut hit .282 for game three while the Blue and Gray put up .158. This ends the BIG EAST portion of the schedule for Georgetown. They will play two more games this season as they travel to Richmond, Va. on November 23-24 for the VCU Thanksgiving Tournament where they will play the Rams for the second time this season and match up against Liberty on the second day of the event. |
