Two gutty 5th sets keeps Tech’s win streak alive
Moving up a spot in last week’s AVCA rankings, the #16 Georgia Tech Volleyball squad completed their playing of the North Carolina schools facing Duke and #25 North Carolina over the weekend, which included the Tar Heel gym losing light while they were training on Saturday. For teams that Tech in recent history have had no problems dealing with, this past weekend was the toughest we’ve seen them played by Duke and North Carolina in this Otene/Bertolino form of the team.
In both Durham and Chapel Hill, Tech was pushed to fifth sets, beating Duke first (25-20, 18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 16-14) in what likely is the biggest 5th set comeback in program history, coming back from down 11-4 to take the set 16-14 (we tried to get this confirmed, but the team relayed to us there is some historical record recovery to still be done from paper box scores that have been sitting in boxes since the 1980s). Today in Chapel Hill, Tech’s win (25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 20-25, 15-12) was slightly less stressful until UNC won sets three and four to set themselves up for a reverse sweep, but a quick lead gained in determining set put Tech through.
The wins put Tech at 17-4 on the season, one game under their mark after 21 games last year, but with a much tougher schedule in conference play with the rising tide of talent in the ACC. They’re now 9-3 in ACC play, gaining a critical game on UNC who was 10-1 going into today, matching #1 Pitt’s conference record. Games are still to be played at time of writing, but for now Tech is in 4th having won eight straight and nine of their last ten games to match Pitt and Louisville.
Tech’s road record improved to 6-1 on the trip, the only road loss coming at Louisville. As I’ll explain later, that might not be the case after next weekend.
Duke
This was a true grind it out game for Tech. Again being without Heloise Soares and Larissa Mendes due to injury, head coach Michelle Collier ran out the lineup with Logan Wiley starting at middle blocker while shifting Liv Mogridge over to right side. Defense largely dictated much of the game as Duke in the 2nd set was the only team to hit .300 or better, and they hit squarely at .300.
Tamara Otene had a brilliant night, matching her career high 27 kills plus getting 20 digs, making it her second 20/20 double-double, and could match Cris Omiecinski for the program lead with one more. Luanna Emiliano also recorded a 20/20 double-double with 37 assists and 20 digs, the first time that two Jackets recorded 20/20 double-doubles in the same game.
Sofia Velez recorded 27 digs in the contest, her career high.
Collier ended up using lots of the bench. Duke was doing a solid job stopping both DeAndra Pierce and Logan Wiley in the middle of the match, so she pulled in Anna Boezi to provide more size at the net in the third and fourth sets, hitting .375 in her limited time.
Bianca Bertolino also recorded a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs.
In that wild 5th set, Duke only hit 5-15, much of their points coming off of Tech errors on their way to an 11-4 lead. Once Tech cleaned up their mistakes, they had their way with the Blue Devils before of all things a block won the match.
UNC
Defenses were both impressive in the first set with no player truly taking over. Tech was down three points early on as they were getting in the rhythm of the match before Logan Wiley and DeAndra Pierce started landing a few kills in the middle to give Tech’s offense a spark midway through, going up 17-14. Tech got the lead to four at 22-18 after a Bertolino ace, then getting to set point on an Otene kill. UNC was able to beat Laura Fischer at the net and got a fortunate net violation from Luanna Emiliano, but gave the set away 25-23 on a service error.
UNC opted to call timeout down 4-0 in the second set after two great defensive efforts got their first two points followed by a Bertolino ace and Wiley’s 3rd kill of the match. The lead pushed all the way to 8-2 before UNC got their wheels back under them, finding much better offensive efficiency and utilizing Tech errors to take at 14-13 lead. Both sides largely traded sideouts until a Behrednt ace put UNC up 21-19, forcing Tech’s second timeout of the set. Two straight Bertolino aces put Tech back up 22-21, burning UNC’s final timeout. Wiley landed a slide kill and then an ace to finish off the set 25-22.
UNC hit on a four point run to go up 9-6 early in the 3rd, slowly growing the lead to as much as six points at 17-11 despite not going on another 3+ point run. Bertolino was doing a lot of the work to keep Tech relevant in the set, but overall UNC had better firepower hitting a stunning .600 in the set, winning 25-19.
Tech’s 4th set was poor offensively, hitting .095 with only 10 kills, giving UNC an easy enough route once they got ahead midway through the set. Their lead got up to five at 17-12 through some developing back and forth. That lead was easy enough for the Tar Heels to maintain and won the set 25-20.
Once again, Tech was faced with a 5th set to win, gaining a quick 3-0 lead to force an early UNC timeout. The lead got to four at 6-2 before UNC went on a 7-3 run to tie it at 9-9. Otene hit two critical kills to make it 13-11 and 14-12, setting up Tech’s 15-12 win to avoid the reverse sweep and win their eighth straight game.
With the wins, Tech has completed what we noted was a stretch of games they could not lose even one if they wanted to be in consideration to host NCAA Tournament games. Beating #25 UNC today as the #16 ranked team will certainly help their case out a lot.
Next weekend is where our season starts getting super hairy. Tech will make their first trip to Cal and #5 Stanford as ACC opponents next weekend. Tech has not played Stanford since 1995 at a neutral site game in Chicago, and their only ever game against Cal was in the 2003 NCAA Round of 16 in Dallas where they beat the Bears 3-1.
If somehow Tech can get past both squads, the ensuing 10 game win streak would match their longest ever in ACC play.
Both games in California are at 10pm eastern. We laud any and all of you who will stay up. We hope we can make it knowing Friday is the day before our noon kickoff against Miami in Bobby Dodd.
More commentary coming on the next Scions of the Southland from me and Jake.