Volleyball Opening Weekend

Tech sports is underway! And good news, we’re on track to win every game in every sport after Volleyball went undefeated this weekend facing 2021 NCAA Tournament teams Ole Miss and #17 Illinois. Don’t hold me to that though because I hear we play a different orange team in a week in tackle football.

In a “don’t get fooled by the set score” tale, Tech got outscored and arguably outplayed for most of their first match. Ole Miss scored 100 points to Tech’s 94 in the four-setter. Julia Bergmann was the only thing really working for Tech that whole match, and it was needed to the point she set a single-game career high in kills with 33. In the second set, her kill to make it 17-14 GT was her 1,200th of her career. The 33 accounted for 54% of the team’s total in the game.

In game two of the weekend against Illinois, Tech took care of business in straight sets against their first ranked opponent of the year. It was much closer to a standard Yellow Jacket game with a bunch of of the team getting good hits in, but also had a tighter roster that Collier put out. Elizabeth Patterson was the only player to only appear in one set.

Three Thoughts

1. ROTATE ROTATE ROTATE!

Just in the first game alone, 14 Jackets took the court, giving Elizabeth Patterson, Anna Boezi, Tali Marmen, Tamara Otene, Laura Fischer, Cara Bianco, and Leia Harper their Tech debuts. Clearly head coach Michelle Collier is still figuring out what the base lineup will be going forward considering the opponent quality is going forward will be intense.

Only 9 Jackets played in the Illinois game, but seeing Patterson step in might be a piece we don’t see going forward.

2. When hope is lost, call on Julia

If Tech didn’t have the ACC Player of the Year on their squad, Tech very likely would be sitting 0-1 after the Ole Miss match. Nothing else went right and she’s going to be a massive reason why this team will go far. 33 kills is insane, topping her 30 she put against Notre Dame last year. Louisville did play her very effectively in the NCAA Tournament last year, so it will be interesting to see if any of Dayton/Arizona State/FIU try and replicate their defensive strategy next weekend.

3. Erin Moss might be Tech’s secret weapon

Teams will know she’s in the middle ready for quick snipe kills, but when she’s going strong like she was against Illinois, it spreads out Tech’s offense incredibly well with her, Bergmann, and Bertolinio all viable to hit a kill any given point. While this team as we’ve seen can win with just Julia producing, days when Moss is offensively on her game gets Tech into that top 10 kind of team they are. She put up 10 kills with a .533 Hit % against Illinois.

BONUS:

#8 Washington lost their first game to Arkansas and #7 Ohio State lost to #2 Texas, so if the coaches look kindly to the results, Tech could be top 8 going into the GT Invitational next weekend.

Upcoming games for your 2-0 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets:

9/2: vs. Dayton, 8pm

9/3: vs. Arizona State, 5pm

9/4: vs. Florida International, 2pm