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 Junior Liz Moult pounded 16 kills against Georgetown in GW's 3-0 victory Saturday at American. |
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Volleyball Gets First Victory of the Season, 3-0, Over Georgetown
Aug. 25, 2007
WASHINGTON, DC -- The George Washington volleyball team evened its record on the young season by sweeping crosstown rival Georgetown, 3-0, Saturday afternoon at American University's Bender Arena. The Colonials prevailed by the scores, 30-16, 30-28, 30-25 in just under two hours. The GW-Georgetown match was part of the second annual DC Challenge, a round-robin tournament that features American and George Mason in addition to the Colonials and Hoyas. American swept George Mason, 3-0, earlier Saturday at Bender Arena. The Patriots and Hoyas are scheduled to play at 5 p.m. at Bender.
In the 59th renewal of the crosstown rivalry, this year's match-up pit a young GW squad against a very young Georgetown team. GW took control early in game one by going up 7-3 before the Hoyas battled back to tie the game at 13-13 on a kill by Katherine Niesen. GW responded with a Janine Brown kill to ignite a 7-0 run by the Colonials and take a 20-13 advantage. GW scored 10 of the next 13 points to win easily, 30-16.
Game two was much closer as the teams battled through 17 ties and nine lead changes. With the game tied at 28-28, Georgetown's youth showed as the Hoyas committed an attack error and, with GW's Hannah Stuart serving for game point, the Hoyas froze allowing the serve to fall untouched for the ace.
Following a 10-minute intermission, the Hoyas came out inspired and took a 14-9 lead that included several kills by Niesen. The Colonials then got a pair of service aces by Brown and one from Jess Buche to close to within 17-16 prompting Georgetown to call a timeout. Following the timeout, the Colonials benefitted from a Hoya ball-handling error to forge the first of five ties, the last coming at 21-21. GW then pulled away on the strength of three kills by Brown and a pair by junior Liz Moult including the game-winner.
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Moult led all players with 16 kills in 31 attempts for a .419 hitting percentage and 16.5 points. Brown added 13 kills and a career-high 26 digs for her second straight double-double in as many matches.
"We played much better from antenna to antenna today," GW head coach Jojit Coronel said afterward. "I told the players after last night's loss (3-1 at GMU) that they weren't that far from winning the match, we just needed our hitters to step up and get more kills. Our attacks were getting dug way too much."
Georgetown (0-2) which fielded a very young team of mostly freshmen and sophomores, was led by Dana Dumas' 13 kills and 12 digs for 13.5 points. Freshman setter Paola Annoni had 29 assists and a team-high 15 digs for the Hoyas.
GW hit .217 (51-20-143) as a team while GU combined to hit just .089 (36-23-146) for the match. The Colonials also out-blocked Georgetown, 8.5 to 4.0, at the net.
The teams have faced each other on the volleyball court every year for the last 32 years with the Colonials holding a slim 32-27 advantage in the all-time series.
GW (1-1) will try to hand host American (2-0) its first loss of the season when the teams collide in the final match of the DC Challenge at 7:00 p.m. Saturday also at Bender Arena.
