The Georgetown Volleyball team lost a tough match to Virginia Commonwealth University Tuesday night at McDonough Gym in a five game decision.
“We weren’t playing poorly, we just didn’t have quite enough oomph,” Head Coach Arlisa Hagan Williams said.
VCU dominated the first two games, taking the lead early and holding it through both games, 30-25, 30-18. Georgetown’s attempted comebacks fizzled out due to a combination of VCU’s strong hitting and Georgetown’s weak digging.
“They [VCU] were really good divers and were digging balls up all the time, so it was hard,” junior setter Caitlin Boland said. “We were running out of steam after three or four attempts and not terminating.”
In game three Georgetown faced their last chance to make something happen. When junior middle blocker Katherine Neisen scored a kill to tie the game for the first time, the Hoyas’ momentum got going. Another kill minutes later from sophomore outside hitter Jessica Hardy gave the Hoyas a 19-18 lead. The teams battled for the game, passing the lead back and forth, but the Hoyas came out on top 30-28.
“I think that in the third game it is really easy to realize that it is do or die,” Neisen said. “You have to make a play right there. I think I motivated myself … it helped me to play better and go after the balls.”
The Hoyas stayed strong in game four, taking the lead early and making VCU work. Coming back to the court after a Georgetown timeout with the score 28-28, Hardy struck down two kills to take the game for the Hoyas. In game five Georgetown was back in a rut. While they started 3-0, VCU scored 11 straight, eventually taking the game 15-6, and the match 3-2.
“In game five it was tough because we were making a lot of adjustments for injuries that happened throughout the game,” Boland said.
The team’s defensive specialist came out in game two with a wrist injury, forcing the team to play without a key defender until her replacement warmed up. A lack of healthy players was a challenge for the Hoyas, and will continue to be a factor in future game strategies.
“Our biggest goal is to stay healthy, and then from there we will figure it out,” Hagan said.
The team will look to make a change this Saturday at McDonough Arena at 1 p.m. against Big East opponent South Florida.
