Georgetown volleyball is back on the court for the 2026 fall season. The team opened their season in the District last weekend, Friday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Aug. 30, with the annual D.C. Challenge. Their season, which runs through mid-November, begins with non-conference play at four weekend tournaments before transitioning to individual BIG EAST games.
The Hoyas started the season strong, winning two games and losing one at the first tournament. On Friday, the Hoyas beat American University, three sets to one. While the Hoyas dropped the first set, 16-25, they fought back to take three straight sets, 25-21, 25-22, 26-24. In coming back and closing out, the Hoyas displayed a tenacity and adherence to their game plan.
Georgetown outpaced American by just three kills, 55 to 52, and beat them solidly in assists, 54-45. Junior outside hitter Dionna Mitchell contributed 14 kills and two blocks, and senior middle blocker Kamryn Lee-Caracci had nine kills and three blocks. Graduate transfer libero Bella McGirr led the team in defensive saves during the match, with 18 digs.
In an interview with the Voice, head coach AJ Bonetti attributed the team’s success to strong fundamentals.
“The initial barometer of success for most teams is just being able to take care of that passing situation when the other team is serving, and then of course the inverse, serving and the other team is passing,” Bonetti said. “We did that better than our opponents for a majority of the matches, and it gave us the opportunity to really be in system a lot, which allows us to really function at a high level offensively.”
Beyond setting the team up for offensive success, they run a pass system to limit their opponents’ offensive options, as they did against George Mason on Saturday.
The Hoyas were back home at McDonough Arena on Saturday, and though the Hoyas pushed through to take the first set 30-28, George Mason swung the tides in their favor for the second set, 25-22, overriding a 10-6 Hoya lead with five consecutive points of their own. George Mason’s push, however, led Georgetown to double down. Despite starting the third set down 4-8, the Hoya offense sparked up and didn’t stop, winning the final two sets of the match to take the game 3-1.
Mitchell and Lee-Caracci had five and seven blocks, respectively, and sophomore outside hitter Katherine McGregor and senior outside hitter Grace Albaugh nailed key kills to wrap up the match.
McGirr, who had 21 digs in the game, played for Boise State before transferring to Georgetown this season with a fifth year of eligibility. In an interview with the Voice, McGirr tied the team’s success to its culture and play style.
“I think with this program in particular we have a very strong culture within the players and the coaches, and that understanding of each other is going to help us in the long run and in tight moments against tougher competitions.”
That connection underlies volleyball’s nature as a team sport—to convert blocks, kills, and digs to points, those at the net and players in the backcourt need to be on the same page.
“For our team in particular, it really takes everyone. We’re one of those teams where we need every facet of the game and every player on our team to be contributing. We don’t really necessarily have one star person that’s gonna carry the team, which I think is a great benefit for us and makes us more of a threat against these other teams,” McGirr said.
Bonetti hit upon a similar theme.
“We have people in the junior class and the sophomore class who are finding their voice amongst the team, and that is a really big deal when you come into a team sport like volleyball because it really does kind of take a village,” he said. “So if everyone is on the same path and kind of on the same drum together, it’s a pretty powerful thing.”
On Sunday, the Hoyas entered their third game against Northwestern University on a winning high, while Northwestern came in following two losses. Northwestern’s hitting percentage (successful kills minus errors over the total swings made) sat at .283 for the match, indicating strong offensive play. Georgetown fell below Northwestern with a hitting percentage of .141. While the Hoyas kept close to Northwestern in the first set, they lost 23-25. In the remaining two sets, they only reached 15 and 17 points, respectively. Hoya volleyball dropped the game, zero sets to Northwestern’s three.
Coming out of the weekend, Bonetti is focused on keeping the team competitive in all matches.
“Our product has improved, and it continues to improve. And it is an absolute great watch to see in person,” he said of the team’s performance.
Bonetti joined the team in 2023 after working as an assistant coach at University of Maryland. After four full seasons with the Hoyas, he’s seen a class of players grow on and off the court.
He mentioned the strong academic profile the players bring to the court as a separating factor between them and their competition: “There’s a lot of really good volleyball players out there, but to be able to do it both at a high level in the classroom and on the volleyball court is a pretty unique thing,” he said.
The emphasis on academic success relates to the team’s philosophy. Bonetti views the development of the student, athlete, and person in each player as a three-pronged goal.
“We put a lot of effort and a lot of time into development of our players, and you know, the senior group that we have this year with Kamryn [Lee-Caracci], Maria [Filippova], and Grace [Albaugh], they have grown so much as volleyball players on the court, and then as people off the court, you know, growing into their academic self and their real-world self.”
He rounded out with some words to the Georgetown community.
“We’re working our tails off to continue to improve ourselves on the court. But the support that students could offer by simply showing up and being fans of Georgetown and the athletic programs would mean so much to us, and go a long way to the vibes and the atmosphere that we can produce here at Georgetown.”
Bonetti looks forward to the match against crosstown rival George Washington University (0-3, Atlantic 10) who they’ll play on Friday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m. at McDonough Arena.
As for McGirr, her goals for herself this season include developing her veteran presence on the team.
“I really want to just challenge myself to be more of a vocal presence for this team. I know that I’m new and it can be hard to have a voice sometimes, but I want to start trusting my experience and my leadership, and bring that to this team.”
McGirr called out Creighton University (2-1, BIG EAST) as a matchup she’s looking forward to.
“They’re one of those teams that just has the history of being in the NCAA tournament, and I’m excited to see what our team can do against them,” she said.“I think if we can really essentially just control the controllables, I’ll be very proud of us because our culture and our connections are there. So I just really want us to build off of that and execute at the highest level possible.”
The Georgetown Hoyas will take on the Creighton Jays on Saturday, Oct. 17, 6 p.m, at McDonough Arena. The team dropped another game, 1-3, on Friday Sept. 4 to University of Central Florida in the Wake Forest Invitational, and look to bounce back against Davidson University on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 3 p.m.
