Final Stats

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches to open the Rice adidas Invitational II on Friday in Houston, Texas. The Hoyas fell 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-10) to Arkansas State in the opener before losing 3-1 (25-21, 25-15, 13-25, 25-16) to Stephen F. Austin in the nightcap.

Match 1 -- Arkansas State 3, Georgetown 1
Georgetown opened the day with a tough 3-1 (24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 25-10) loss to Arkansas State. Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) led the Hoyas with 15 kills at an impressive .438 hitting percentage while Aima Eichie (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon/UC Davis) and Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas/Dawson) both added eight kills and Riley Wertzberger (Dallas, Texas/Richardson) had seven. Paige McKnight (Atlanta, Ga./Dunwoody) paced the offense with a match-high 40 assists and a team-best 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the season.

Defensively, Sinnette and Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) joined McKnight in double-figure digs with 11 each.

The opening frame was a story of small runs and tight advantages, highlighted by a combined 23 ties and lead changes in the set. Following GU's opening point, the Red Wolves posted a 4-1 run that was thwarted by a 3-1 spurt from the Hoyas to make it 5-5 early. Arkansas State responded with another 4-1 run but was rebuffed with a 5-1 outburst from the Blue & Gray to give the Hoyas an 11-10 lead. The Red Wolves hit back with another 4-1 run before GU put together spurts of 4-1 and 3-1 to take a 19-17 lead, but A-State clamped down and scored three of the next four points to knot things up at 20-20 and force a timeout. Coming out of the huddle, only Georgetown was able to put the ball away on consecutive points en route the 26-24 set victory.

Just like the first set, the second stanza saw 11 ties and five lead changes in the back-and-forth battle. Georgetown led six times in the opening portion of the frame, including up 9-8. Arkansas State then posted two separate 5-2 runs over the course of the next 16 points to lead 18-15. The Red Wolves later led 24-20, but a late GU rally cut the deficit to 24-23 courtesy of an Eichie kill before A-State cut the momentum with a timeout and scored the set-winning point coming out of the break.

In the third, Arkansas State jumped out to a 5-0 lead and led by as many as seven points in the set. Speech and Sinnette combined for nine of GU's 13 kills in the set but the Hoyas couldn't overcome the slow start in the 25-19 loss.

The fourth began as competitively as the opening two, seeing both squads tied at 5-5 before a 14-3 run from Arkansas State gave the Red Wolves a 19-8 lead en route to the 25-10 victory.

Drew Jones led A-State and all players with 18 kills while Tatum Ticknor had 19 digs in the win.

Match 2 -- Stephen F. Austin 3, Georgetown 1
Against the Ladyjacks, Eichie led the Hoyas with 12 kills while hitting at a solid .478 clip. Sinnette and Speech both added nine kills while Madison Smith (Elk Grove, Calif./Elk Grove) chipped in seven.

Defensively, Higareda put together another double-digit dig performance with 15.

Georgetown took the early advantage in the opening frame, leading 10-7 before a 7-1 run by SFA gave the Ladyjacks a 14-11 lead and forced the Hoyas to take their first timeout. Coming out of the huddle, the Blue & Gray cut the deficit to just one point, down 16-15, before Stephen F. Austin responded with a 6-3 run to lead 22-18 and force GU to take its final timeout before eventually claiming the set 25-21.

In the second, the two squads traded leads back and forth with the Hoyas taking a 10-9 lead on a Speech kill. The Ladyjacks took control from there, posting runs of 6-1 and 7-1 to close out the set en route to the 25-15 victory.

Clamping down, Georgetown dominated the third set against SFA. The Hoyas jumped to an early 5-2 lead and never looked back. Leading 14-8, GU rallied off a 10-1 run to put the set out of reach before winning the frame 25-13.

In the fourth, Stephen F. Austin flipped the script from the third set and took an early 8-3 lead to force a GU timeout. Despite scoring out of the timeout, the Hoyas couldn't find momentum in the set as a 5-0 run from the Ladyjacks gave SFA a comfortable 13-4 lead before taking the final set 25-16 and the match 3-1.

Haley Coleman and Makenzee Hanna led the Ladyjacks with 12 kills each while Peyton Redmond added 10.

Georgetown returns to action as it closes out the Rice adidas Invitational II against the host Owls on Saturday. First serve is set for 11 a.m. EST and fans can follow the action live on www.GUHoyas.com with live stats and streaming video.