Nov. 16, 2017
WASHINGTON - Georgetown University's volleyball team closes out the 2017 with a pair of home matches at McDonough Arena this weekend. The Hoyas host Providence on Friday before wrapping up the campaign against No. 13 Creighton on Saturday.
Both matches are set for a 6 p.m. first serve. Friday's contest will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network with Monika Moore calling the play-by-play and Saturday's finale will feature Jeremy Huber on the call. Live stats and Saturday's video can be found on www.GUHoyas.com.
Georgetown (8-20, 2-14 BIG EAST) went 1-1 over the weekend, snapping a 12-match losing streak with a 3-1 win at DePaul. Junior standouts
Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) and
Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas/Dawson) both eclipsed the 1,000 career kills mark in the process. Speech became the 14th player in program history to achieve the milestone against Marquette while Sinnette joined her a match later in the win over DePaul. Speech was also named to the BIG EAST weekly honor roll for the fourth time this season.
Speech continues to pace the Hoyas with 3.69 kills per set and is hitting at a league-leading .387 clip. Sinnette adds 2.70 kps while Aima Eichie (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon/UC Davis), Olivia King (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion) and Riley Wertzberger (Dallas, Texas/Richardson) are all just shy of two kills a frame. Paige McKnight (Atlanta, Ga./Dunwoody) paces the offense with 9.26 assists per set and just reached the 1,000 assists mark for the third-straight season.
Defensively, Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) averages 3.84 digs per set. McKnight adds 2.39 dps while Speech, Eichie and Emily Herrington (Gainesville, Fla./St. Francis Catholic) all contribute at least 0.50 blocks per set.
Providence (16-15, 5-11 BIG EAST) comes to the Hilltop having lost eight of its last nine matches. Addison Root leads the Friars with 3.56 kills per set while four other players add more than two kills a frame. Allison Barber paces the offense with 10.2 assists per set and McKenzie Lydon hauls in 3.23 digs per set.
Last time out against Providence, the Hoyas dropped a tough five-set thriller in the Ocean State. Speech led the Blue & Gray with 17 kills while Sinnette and Olivia King (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion) both added 14. McKnight paced the offense with a contest-best 54 assists to go with six digs. Defensively, Higareda posted a match-high 16 digs while Speech recorded four blocks at the net.
Creighton (22-5, 15-1 BIG EAST) is on an 11-match winning streak after dropping its lone league match of the season at Marquette. The 13th-ranked Bluejays travel to face Villanova on Friday before making their way to the Nation's Capital for the season finale on Saturday.
Jaali Winters and Taryn Kloth lead CU with 3.43 and 3.03 kills per set, respectively, and Lydia Dimke paces the offense with 10.69 assists per set. Defensively, Jaclyn Taylor averages 4.26 digs per set while Marysa Wilkinson is good for 1.00 blocks per set at the net.
Last time out against Creighton, Georgetown fell to the then-15th ranked Bluejays, 3-1, in Omaha in the BIG EAST opener. Speech led Georgetown with a match-high 16 kills and hit at a .343 clip while King added 11 kills. McKnight posted a double-double with 32 assists and 12 digs while Higareda anchored the back row with 16 digs.
Saturday's finale will also serve as Senior Day for Meghan Richard (Firestone, Colo./Niwot/Seattle) and Eichie.
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