Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Volleyball | Rookies Bring Energy, Optimism

FILE PHOTO: SOPHIE FAABORG-ANDERSEN/THE HOYA Freshman Liv King has recorded the second-most kills for the Hoyas with 210 on the season, with an average of 2.53 kills per set. She also has the second most overall points on the team with 233.5.
FILE PHOTO: SOPHIE FAABORG-ANDERSEN/THE HOYA
Freshman outside hitter Liv King has recorded the second-most kills for the Hoyas with 210 on the season, averaging 2.53 kills per set. She also has the second most overall points on the team with 233.5.

After a pair of hard-fought losses on the road, the Georgetown volleyball team (8-14, 2-7 Big East) is preparing to host St. John’s (14-10, 4-5 Big East) and Providence (10-13, 1-8 Big East) in a pair of Big East games this weekend.

Georgetown dropped a pair of tough matches last time out, starting with a 3-1 loss to Xavier (10-10, 6-3 Big East) Friday. A day later, Butler (7-15, 3-6 Big East) handed Georgetown another 3-1 loss. Both the game against St. John’s and the matchup with Providence began with a first-set victory for the Hoyas, but in the end they were unable to pull out the final win. “In the second set, something changes, and I think the problem is the team isn’t 100 percent sure what that is. So that’s what we’re working on figuring out so that in the future we can get those second matches,” freshman outside hitter Liv King said.

Still, while the outcome was not what it was hoping for, Georgetown found plenty of positives to bring back to the Hilltop with it.

“We bounced back from the loss against Xavier, and we were still coming out hard and hungry with great energy and camaraderie on Saturday against Butler, and that showed on the floor. Even though we dropped that second match, we were very pleased with our effort,” Head Coach Arlisa Williams said.

King echoed her coach’s sentiments, emphasizing the positive spirit within the team.

“Even though we dropped the match, we had a really fun time playing. The team morale was really high, the energy was really high, we were playing 100 percent, and that’s always fun to remind yourself why you love volleyball,” King said.

The Hoyas will look to harness that energy this weekend for a pair of games at McDonough Arena. Georgetown hosts St. John’s Friday at 8 p.m. before facing Providence on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Hoyas have already faced both teams this season, recording a victory against Providence and a loss to St. John’s.

“Now we know who they are; we can go back and look at our first match against them and make adjustments from that, and we can look at the things they’ve been doing most recently and try to make adjustments to that,” Williams said.

One adjustment the Hoyas hope to make is improving their hitting against the Red Storm’s block, which gave them trouble in their previous match. King will be the one of the Hoyas tasked with avoiding that block. “I spend a lot of time in practice and also during games working on tooling the block, hitting around the block, hitting over the block, so this’ll be a good opportunity for me to test all those things,” King said.

Overall, the team is optimistic. Sophomore setter Meghan Richard, who transferred from Seattle University this year, praised the team’s progress.

“I think it’s been awesome, especially since we had so many new people. We started off sort of incohesive, but slowly we’re getting to a point where we’re all playing really comfortably with each other. I think that’s really unique for this team,” Richard said.

The team will be celebrating that progress, as well as some special events, this weekend. Sunday is Georgetown’s Dig Pink match in support of breast cancer awareness. The team will wear pink shoelaces and ribbons. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game.

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