Stellar days by Mogridge, Bertolino, and Wiley aid shorthanded Jackets
#17 Georgia Tech Volleyball finished off their sixth straight win, defeating the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20) to move to 15-4 (7-3 ACC) and 6th in the ACC.
Multiple players performed quite well as Tech hit .258 as a team, mainly powered behind a 19 kill, 15 dig double-double by Bianca Bertolino. Tamara Otene and Liv Mogridge also finished in double digit kills with 16 and 14 respectively. Mogridge’s 14 are a career high, beating her previous mark of 13 set two years ago against Virginia when she was playing for North Carolina. She did set it today playing right side instead of her usual middle blocker.
Logan Wiley, starting in place of the injured/ill Larissa Mendes, hit nine kills at a .562 clip, her career high attack efficiency. Backup setter Heloise Soares remains out after getting surgery to her hand, but the November timeline for her return hasn’t changed yet.
This was a critical win as Tech is in the easier stretch of their ACC schedule after starting 1-3, likely needing to win out before they face Stanford twice and Pitt again in November to maintain a good NCAA Tournament seed.
How It Happened
Set 1
Tech shared the ball well with kills by Mogridge, Bertolino, and Wiley to grab a 4-2 lead, which Wake countered with a three point run to go up 5-4. Tech went a rotation with Lauren Sanden in Liv Mogride’s spot, which coincided with some slightly slower play on Tech’s part plus some communication errors to help Wake go on a four points in five run, prompting Tech’s first timeout down 12-8.
Mogridge then pulled Tech back into the set playing out of position at right side with two kills and an ace before Otene’s first kill of the set tied it at 14-14 and Wake called timeout. Both sides went back and forth with seven ties until consecutive Wiley and Pierce kills finally gave Tech a two point gap near the end at 23-21 before Otene landed the final kill.
Stats via Georgia Tech
Set 2 (1-0 GT)
The trend of the latter half of the first set stayed in the early second with neither team going up more than a point until 13-11 GT, coming from a stretch where despite multiple communication errors, Tech was still able to defend well enough and set up Wiley and Mogridge for kills to create the two point lead, forcing Wake’s first timeout. That gap stretched to four at 15-11 before a couple of Mogridge misses on both sides of the court brought the Deacons right back in it, tying it at 16-16 and winning the next point to force Tech’s first timeout.
Wake’s run went as far as four to go up 18-16, and then took advantage of Tech attack errors to go up 23-19, putting Tech in a real problem spot. Bertolino got a kill on the next point and was next on serve. She put down two of her best serves of the season, including an ace to force Wake’s second timeout up 23-22. Otene then had both a block and attack error to win the set for wake 25-22.
Stats via Georgia Tech
Set 3 (1-1)
Mogridge put Tech ahead early with two kills and a block assist with Wiley to go up 3-1 before Wake went on the same run to tie it at 4-4. Both sides hit a flurry of service errors, mainly stifling Tech’s building momentum in the set as Tech went up 8-6. The momentum wasn’t fully killed, as Tech found a three point run to go up 11-7 and force Wake’s first timeout. The run stretched to five points, their longest of the set, going up 13-7.
A point later, Bertolino powered another run in attack and at the service line, landing her second ace of the match to force Wake’s second timeout and doubling the Deacons 16-8. Bertolino instigated another three point run to put the set fully out of set up 22-12. Emiliano ended the set with an ace at 25-15.
stats via Georgia Tech
Set 4 (2-1 GT)
Again, Mogridge kickstarted things for Tech getting a kill on the first point of the set and then the first of a four point run that forced Wake’s first timeout with Tech up 7-3. The run lasted one more point before Dior Charles put the Deacons back on the service line. Wake immediately rallied with a four point run that had a mix of Otene errors and Deacon kills. Two Bertolino kills kept Wake from sniffing a tie at 10-8 and 11-9.
Wiley landed one of her more thunderous kills of her young career to get a timely four point run for Tech going that included a Bertolino ace and another Wiley kill to go up 16-10. One solitary Wake point prevented it from being an eight point run as Tech went up 20-11.
The Deacons found the seocnd set version of themselves here, scoring eight of the next eleven points, burning both of Tech’s timeouts as they were doing a great job on service to keep Tech discombobulated and forcing errors to bring it as close as 23-19, but it wasn’t enough before Bertolino finished the job 25-20.
Stats & Game Leaders
Stats via Georgia Tech
Game Leaders
Kills: Bianca Bertolino (GT) – 19
Assists: Luanna Emiliano (GT) – 51
Digs: Emma Farrell (WF) – 22
Points: Bianca Bertolino (GT) – 22
Hit % (min. 10 attempts): Logan Wiley (GT) .562 [career high]
Blocks: Dior Charles (WF) – 5
Takeaways
The Logan Wiley experiment is working: Logan has played the middle blocker as well as anyone this whole season for Tech in the few games she has played after Mendes went out. Colllier has created an environment for her on the court where she’s not having to do too much beyond blocking side to side and linking up with setter Luanna Emiliano in attack. She’s showing more and more kinds of shots that she has in her arsenal, plus has a fantastic vertical leap. What we lost in attack efficiency from Mendes is being picked up in dynamic play from Wiley and stable play from Mogridge at right side.
Bertolino consistency: It’s no surprise that Bertolino is putting up great performances game after game against teams Tech usually beats up on, but actually seeing it a couple weeks after Tech nearly lost to Clemson at home is showing the rebounding ability Tech has, and it will always come when Bertolino plays like this. She’s at 12+ kills in each of the alst four games, today hitting over .300 for the sixth time this season.
#17 Georgia Tech Volleyball next plays this Friday, November 1 at 6:30pm in Cameron Indoor at Duke.