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ATLANTA, GEORGIA — First, apologies for the lateness of this week’s edition. If you are at all in the orbit of the Georgia Tech varsity sports that don’t usually get covered in this column, I am sure you can probably guess why. The sports news cycle rarely ceases, but the gears have turned quite quickly in the past few days.
Second, I remembered some time this week that I used to have a template for this, which had some useful information. If you’re wondering why everything looks a bit different, well, that would be why. Working on making some improvements there and getting that back up sometime soon, too.
#5 Volleyball
Tech is upset by #24 Arkansas 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20)
Tech sweeps the school in Athens 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-21)
I have come to realize that a larger rotation for Tech tends to be a sign that something is not going exactly right for the Jackets. Much as Tech played a larger lineup against Ohio State in their previous loss, the defeat in Fayetteville featured twelve players seeing time on the floor. In the first set of the match, Tech got off to a slow start and could never quite recover. The Jackets were outhit by a sizable margin in the first set, posting just a .061 hitting percentage to the Razorbacks’ .267, with a similar gap persisting in the third and fourth sets, which Tech also dropped, though Tech hit above .200 in each of those. Sideout percentage and total errors tracked right along with the hitting percentage, which is unsurprising given the results of those sets. In the second set, all of these measures were flipped in favor of the Jacket, and the slight margin in favor of Tech belies the outcome of that set at well. Unsurprisingly, limiting errors and being effective on possessions yields positive results.
Highlights from the box score are certainly led by the middle blockers. Breland Morrissette was Tech’s most effective attacker on the day. Her 10 kills on 2 errors on 20 attacks resulted in Tech’s leading hit percentage of .400, and she added an 11-12 day from service, as well. Fellow middle blocker Erin Moss was perfect on the attack, going 7 for 21. Among outside hitters, Julia Bergmann finished with 22 kills on a less efficient 57 total attempts with 8 errors for a .267 hit percentage, while Bianca Bertolino amassed 9 kills and 3 errors on 40 attempts and Tamara Otene accounted for 2 kills and 3 errors on 8 attempts.
In Tech’s second match of the weekend, they were whisked from one end of the Southeastern Conference to the other as the second match of the weekend took place in Athens. This match went much better for the Jackets, as they swept their hosts in front of 2,673 fans at the school out east. Belying the fact that things went much better for Tech, their rotation was much tighter than Thursday night, and the Jackets dominated the sideout and hit percentages on the attack. Interestingly, they managed to win in the third despite yielding several more errors than their hosts. Overall, it was a much more mundane match than Thursday, despite the higher rivalry factor.
From the box score, all of Tech’s players with at least one total attempt were in the positive, with Tamara Otene having her best performance of the young season and indeed of her Tech career, racking up 11 kills on 3 errors and 23 total attempts for a team-leading .348 hit percentage (11-3-23-.348). Bergmann finished at 16-6-34-.294, Morrissette went 5-1-14-.286, and Bertolino came in at 10-5-24-.208 on the day. Morrissette, D’Amico, and Bertolino were perfect in service among those with at least ten serves, while the team as a whole was errorless in blocking, with Morrissette leading the way contributing 1 solo block and 3 block assists.
Much like the timing of this article, the rest of the “Scions of the Southland” team here at From the Rumble Seat, has been bogged down this week, hence the lack of a volleyball three thoughts recap from Jack. For more volleyball check out the “Scions” podcast here, including a bit more editorial action on the games from all three of us.
Women’s Tennis
Women’s Tennis headed to Greenville last weekend for the Debbie Southern Furman Fall Classic, an event they have been to several times in recent memory. A number of large regional schools were there, including USC, Ohio State, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, and Clemson in addition to the hosts. With the positively enormous amount of matches played, after six years, I finally thought to display them in a table. If it works, let me know, if it doesn’t, well, I suppose you can let me know about that, too.
Women’s Tennis - Furman Fall Classic - Singles
| Singles | Match 1 | Match 2 | Match 3 | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singles | Match 1 | Match 2 | Match 3 | Record |
| Mahak Jain | 1-6, 1-6 [L] | 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 [W] - Consolation | 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7) [W] - Consolation | 2-1 |
| #73 Kylie Bilchev | 6-0, 6-0 [W] | 3-6, 7-6 (4), 5-7 [L] | 0-6, 2-6 [L] - Consolation | 1-2 |
| #118 Ava Hrastar | 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 [W] | Default [L] | -- | 1-1 |
| Alejandra Cruz | 3-6, 0-6 [L] | 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 [W] - Consolation | 6-7 (6), 4-6 [L] - Consolation | 1-2 |
| Ruth Marsh | 5-7, 7-6 (6), 0-6 [L] | 2-6, 6-2, 4-6 [L] - Consolation | 6-3, 6-3 [W] - Consolation | 1-2 |
| Kate Sharabura | 6-7 (5), 2-6 [L] | 6-4, 7-6 (2) [W] - Consolation | 2-6, 6-2, 6-7 (5) [L] - Consolation | 1-2 |
| Rosie Garcia Gross | 7-6 (6), 6-4 [W] | 1-6, 3-6 [L] | Retire [L] - Consolation | 1-2 |
| Monika Dedaj | 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 10-7 [W] | 6-3, 6-3 [W] | 0-6, 3-6 [L] | 2-1 |
| Team | 4-4 | 4-4 | 2-5 | 10-13 |
Women’s Tennis - Furman Fall Classic - Doubles
| Doubles | Match 1 | Match 2 | Match 3 | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doubles | Match 1 | Match 2 | Match 3 | Record |
| #9 Ava Hrastar/Kylie Bilchev | 8-6 [W] | 7-8 [L] | -- | 1-0 |
| Ruth Marsh/Alejandra Cruz | 2-8 [L] | 5-8 [L] | 8-4 [W] | 1-2 |
| Kate Sharabura/Mahak Jain | 8-4 [W] | 4-8 [L] | 7-8 (5) [L] | 1-2 |
| Monika Dedaj/Rosie Garcia Gross | 8-0 [W] | 8-2 [W] | 8-1 [W] | 3-0 |
| Team | 3-1 | 1-3 | 2-1 | 6-4 |
Tech is at rest until the week of October 3rd, when they head to Cary, North Carolina for the ITA All-American Championships.
Men’s Tennis
Tech sent two athletes, Robert Bauer and Ángel Guerrero Melgar, to Columbus this weekend for one of the local Universal Tennis College Circuit competitions. With Columbus State University playing host, both Bauer and Guerrero Melgar played into quarterfinal action, as well as the semifinals as a pairing. Per the Universal Tennis website, the quarterfinals finished as a 6-4, 6-3 loss for Guerrero Melgar and a 7-5, 7-5 loss for Bauer, while the pair’s doubles loss in the semifinals was 6-2. The singles consolations both ended in wins and the match between the two was not played, while the consolation doubles match went 6-0 against a pairing from Eastern Kentucky.
There was not much coverage of these events on RamblinWreck.com, but Universal Tennis’ website confirms the previous Scions of the Southland speculation that these tournaments — Tech will also be attending one at Georgia Gwinnett — are new. Their site notes that there is also prize money at stake, which is very intriguing. With 40 players registered overall, presumably $1,500 was at stake, which is not insignificant, considering that the number was $0 before the advent of recent changes in college athletics with respect to money and compensation. Other interesting notes include there being “no coaching allowed, officials present.” With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if any additional Tech players turn out for the next edition at Georgia Gwinnett.
Cross Country
Tech placed in third on both the men’s and women’s side of the competition in Huntsville this past Friday, at North Alabama’s sizable invitational. Per RamblinWreck.com, there were 384 women competing on the weekend as well as 300 men, which is quite a large field, all things considered. Overall, Tech had three finishers in the top ten, with Liz Galarza (16:38.96) finishing fourth overall and John Higinbotham (24:00.86) and Helena Lindsay (16:49.08) both finishing tenth on their respective sides of the competition. This weekend, the women ran a 5K and the men ran an 8K.
From the Club House
Women’s Soccer
- Defeats the school in Athens 2-0, Roe Stamps Field. It is worth noting that between club soccer and varsity volleyball and cross country, Tech was 4-0 against the school in Athens this weekend.
Men’s Soccer
- Blanks Kennesaw State 4-0, location unknown.
Running Wreck
- Competed in Huntsville at the North Alabama Invitational.
This Week:
Volleyball:
9/23 — Wake Forest [7:00 PM, ACCNX]
9/25 — VPISU [1:00 PM, ACCNX]
Men’s Tennis:
9/23-25 — Commodore Invitational [ALL DAY] (Nashville, TN)
Football:
9/17 — at Central Florida [4:00 PM, ESPNU]
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