The Georgetown women’s volleyball team (7-17, 1-11 Big East) dropped both of its weekend matches on the road, losing in straight sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-21) to Xavier (9-17, 4-8 Big East) before coming up short in a five-set match (25-22, 25-19, 19-25, 23-25, 15-8) against Butler (19-6, 9-4 Big East).
Junior middle blocker Symone Speech led the Hoyas against the Musketeers with 17 kills at a 0.483 hitting rate, while junior outside hitter Alyssa Sinnette added 12 kills. Kenzie Higareda led the defensive effort with 12 kills for the Hoyas, who have now dropped nine matches in a row, with their last victory coming on September 29th.
Against Xavier, Georgetown struggled at the start of each set, falling behind 7-3, 11-6, and 11-3 in the first, second, and third sets, respectively. The Hoyas would manage to tie the first set at 14-all, forcing a Xavier timeout. But the Musketeers would respond with a 7-0 spurt of their own to put the frame out of reach. During the second set, the Hoyas once more fell prey to a Xavier scoring run, as the Musketeers employed bursts of 8-3 and 6-2 to take the second set 25-18, despite the Hoyas actually recording more kills than the opposition during this frame. The Hoyas showed resolve in the third set, battling back from a 11-3 deficit to pull within two points at 17-15, thanks to a kill from Sinnette. However, the Musketeers would take the next three points to keep the Hoyas in the rearview.
The Hoyas played a much tighter match against the Bulldogs, competing for every point of the five-set affair before running out of steam at the end. Speech once again led the Georgetown attack with 19 kills, while Sinnette posted an offensive-defensive double-double with 17 kills and 13 digs. The Blue and Gray lost their first two sets in relatively close fashion, but regrouped and mounted a significant comeback to take the next two sets, 25-19 and 25-23. The Bulldogs held on for the victory, taking a sizable 8-2 advantage early in the fifth set en route to a 15-8 victory.
The Hoyas return to action on Friday at McDonough Arena against St. John’s (13-15, 5-8 Big East) to close out the weekend’s action. The first serve is slated for 6:00 pm. The Hoyas face a short turnaround, playing host to Seton Hall (14-12, 8-5 Big East) Saturday at 6:00 pm.
