Yellow Jacket Roundup: Receives Votes

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - The Jackets were back in action on many fronts this weekend, and the bag was once again mixed. Did we learn things? Maybe. But does it matter much for most of the teams? Not yet, at least. Except for volleyball, of course, entering the heart of the ACC season.

---

Sidenote before we begin: women’s cross country is ranked. Here at Yellow Jacket Roundup, we were not expecting it, but it is a pleasant surprise, indeed. Here’s hoping the men join them sometime soon. They have one more regular season contest before their ACC and postseason meets occur and were off this weekend.

No. “Would Probably Be Ranked But There Are No Rankings Yet” Women’s Tennis

They are out west and the results of the tournament will be final early this coming week and in next week’s Yellow Jacket Roundup.

This week: The Jackets wrap up the tournament this week.

RV/NR Swimming and Diving

The good news is the Jackets won this weekend in their first races of the year. The bad news is that the Jackets also lost, because it was an intrasquad. The White squad led after Friday night’s opening events, and held that lead to finish the meet with a 345-256 advantage. Though it was good for them to get in the water and race, none of the times were particularly notable as intrasquads are against the same people in the neighboring lanes as always. Breaking intrasquad meet records are nice, but they still aren’t team records and we will see where the team is actually at next weekend in Tallahassee against ACC competition, Florida State and Pittsburgh.

This week: The Jackets head to Tallahassee to open their regular season competition.

Volleyball

Friday, September 28th: Louisville (10 - 4) swept Georgia Tech (11 - 5), 25-16, 25-21, 25-17 (3 - 0).

Sunday, September 30th: Notre Dame (9 - 5) holds off Georgia Tech (11 - 6), 28-26, 27-25, 21-25, 22-25, 15-12 (3 - 2).

The weekend didn’t start off great for the skidding Jackets, who haven’t totally played their best volleyball of late. Louisville took a rapid lead in the first, capitalizing on some vicious serve action and the lack of freshman libero/defensive specialist Maddie Tippett. The court was noticeably quieter without Tippett, who, though she is still a very young member of the team, is very vocal and one of the key cogs of communication on the court. It remains unknown why she was on the bench, but redshirt junior Coral Kazaroff filled in in the blue jersey and sophomore Sam Knapp saw more playing time than she had been getting. The combination of the two were serviceable - hah - as Knapp is more than capable, as we saw last year in her own stellar freshman campaign, and Kazaroff is also a solid player, but it was interesting to note that the Jackets did seem to play a little different without Tippett. Anyways, the opposing teams, having now long since figured out that, while freshman Mariana Brambilla, and to a lesser extent, counterpart Mikaila Dowd, are fantastic on offense, their passing and setting leaves just a bit to be desires. Brambilla spent yet another game as the target of the vast majority of opposing serves. Again, by no means does the game all fall on her shoulders, but this is a young team and they will grow to adapt to things like this. Just as a AAA player called up to major league baseball can’t hit .350 and slug .800 indefinitely, other teams were bound to find a way to exploit the cracks in our game. Luckily there are still seven weekends of conference play left - plenty of time to adapt. Brambilla needs to improve that passing game, but it will come with time. Louisville, one of the top-tier teams in the conference, was primed to take advantage of things like that. And they did, rapidly running up a double-digit lead on Tech and taking the first set with ease.

In the second, Tech kept it closer for longer, though not much changed from the first in Louisville’s game plan. The crowd was never out of it, though, and it was almost another sellout for Tech, so props to the marketing team on volleyball this year. Yellow Jacket Roundup has long been of the opinion that O’Keefe is by far the best atmosphere on the Flats to catch a game - it is both intimate and intimidating - so be sure to catch a game this year. The team is young but quite exciting.

The stats say Tech played their best volleyball in the third set, and I’m inclined to agree, even if the score says the second set finished with a closer margin. This set even saw a Tech return off of a shot right to the face extend a rally for far longer than one would expect, considering the circumstances. Putting everything on the line for the Jackets, a remarkable sacrifice, indeed. Tech ultimately dropped this set, too, though not without making Louisville sweat a little before they clinched after several match-point miscues.

On Sunday, things went a little bit differently for the Jackets. Though the outcome, a loss, was the same as the previous match, how they got their was entirely different, losing in perhaps the hardest, most-character-building-est way possible. Tech was handed two straight losses in extra play, took two sets the old-fashioned way, and then lost a set in the 15 point shootout that is the fifth set. All in all, Tech and the Fighting Irish were knotted up at a 0 point differential after five sets, Notre Dame just happened to be on the winning end of one more set than the Jackets.

In the first game, Tech led by as many as three as late as 19-16, but the game tightened up from there. Tech and Notre Dame traded points to a 26-26 draw before anyone could rattle off two points in a row. It wasn’t the Jackets. The story was almost exactly the same in the second, with Tech leading by as much as 19-15 before the score again was knotted up at 25. Then Notre Dame got two in a row. Tough ways to lose. Tech, for their credit, didn’t give up. Rather, they proceeded to take the next two sets from Notre Dame in still tight, well-played sets. In the fifth, though, the Fighting Irish took an early lead, and, though Tech fought to close the gap, only got as close as 8-7 before the guests escaped with their win intact.

This week: Tech hosts two weekday games, with Clemson visiting Wednesday and the Hokies of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in town Friday, whatever a Hokie is, anyways. The game against Clemson is on your local RSNs, actually, so hooray for collegiate volleyball coming over-the-air.

Men’s Tennis

The men are still at the ITA All-American Championships and will be there through the beginning of this week, depending on their outcomes. Look for a review of the happenings next week!

This week: More ITA All-American Championships, hooray!

Softball

No news on Sunday’s contest, which was rescheduled from Friday so Yellow Jakcet Roundup was unable to attend in person, however Tech did win 20-0 last weekend, so that’s cool.

This week: Tech heads to the state of Tennessee for their only road game of the fall at Chattanooga.

---

This Week on the Flats:

BOLD for home, REGULAR for away, ITALIC for time and location

Monday:
Women’s Tennis @ Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championship
All day, Pacific Palisades, CA

Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Tuesday:
Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Wednesday:
Volleyball vs. Clem’s Son
7:00 PM, O’Keefe Gymnasium, RSNs (Fox Sports South in Atlanta) and WREK 91.1

Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Thursday:
Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Friday:
Football @ Louisville
7:00 PM, Cardinals Stadium, ESPN and Georgia Tech Football Radio Network

Volleyball vs. Louisville
7:00 PM, O’Keefe Gymnasium, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1

Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Saturday:
Swimming and Diving @ Florida State and Pittsburgh
10:00 AM, Tallahassee, FL

Softball @ Chattanooga
5:00 PM, Chattanooga, TN

Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK

Sunday:
Men’s Tennis @ ITA Men’s All-American Championsips
All day, Tulsa, OK