VOLLEYBALL | Three Losses in Charleston Tourney Bring Skid to Five

Georgetown’s volleyball team (6-6) continued its painful slide this weekend, dropping matches to College of Charleston, Michigan State and Presbyterian. The Hoyas have now lost six of their last seven games after a torrid 5-0 start.

The Blue and Gray started their weekend at the Holiday Inn Charleston/Mt. Pleasant Tournament by losing a tough five-set match to tournament host College of Charleston (7-5). After winning the first two frames, the Hoyas looked poised to get a good win under their belts, but the feisty Cougars clawed back and won in five sets.

“We knew coming out that [Charleston] would be a tough team,” Head Coach Arlisa Williams said. “They have won their conference 11 straight years, so they are used to winning. Our team is still learning how to do that.”

After out-blocking and out-hitting the Cougars in the first two sets, the Hoyas could not regroup after Charleston came out with a more aggressive plan in the third set.

“We came out in set three and were pushing really hard to get it done, but in that push, we made way too many errors,” Williams said.

Georgetown committed nine unforced errors in the third set, compared to four in the first set and five in the second. That left the door open for Charleston to grab momentum and, eventually, the win.

The next match came quickly, as the Blue and Gray had only eight hours’ rest before facing undefeated Michigan State (11-0). The Spartans took control early to win in straight sets: 25-15, 25-18, 25-20.

“I’m not really sure that we ever got into it. We had a quick turnaround, and it took us about a game and a half to get into our rhythm,” Williams said.

While Georgetown tried to battle back after ceding the first set, Michigan State was too good to give away any easy points. There were still bright spots in the match, however, as freshman outside hitter Lauren Saar was named to the all-tournament team after recording 10 kills on only 25 attempts for a .320 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Alex Johnson continued her stellar play as well, notching her seventh double-double of the season and second of the tournament with 12 digs and13 kills on a .360 hitting percentage.

The best chance the Hoyas had during the weekend was against Presbyterian (3-10), but the team again faltered to lose the day’s second match, 25-15, 23-25, 25-10, 25-8.

“I don’t even know what to say about Presbyterian,” Williams said. “We didn’t show up.”

The match was made even more difficult by the fact that sophomore middle blocker Dani White did not play after an injury. White is something of a team leader, and Williams noted that her presence was sorely missed.

Even though the Blue Hose may have an unimpressive record, they found a way to return the ball and make the Hoyas work for every point. Exhaustion played a part in the lopsided loss.

But to Williams, there are still no excuses.

“I think mentality and fatigue played a large part in it,” she said. “But even if we are fatigued mentally or physically, we expect to score more than eight points. We’re better than that.”

The Hoyas will look to bounce back in their home opener tonight at McDonough Arena, where they will face off against Liberty (8-4) at 7 p.m.