WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's volleyball team earned a hard-fought 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-23) sweep on the road at Xavier in BIG EAST action on Saturday night. The win is the first for the Hoyas against the Musketeers in program history as the Blue & Gray improves to 12-7 overall and 5-2 in league play.
Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill. / Oak Park-River Forest) led all players with 12 kills while
Iva Vujosevic (Bar, Montenegro / Niko Rolovic / UMES) posted her ninth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 13 digs.
Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas / Dawson) added eight kills and
Brennan Wilhite (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. / Cathedral Catholic / USC) chipped in four.
Margo Pivonka (Broadview Heights, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) had another solid all-around performance, leading all players with 33 assists to go with three kills, three digs and three service aces.
Defensively,
Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va. / Forest Park) led all players with 20 digs while Speech tallied five blocks for the Hoyas at the net.
A back-and-forth first set saw 10 ties and three lead changes as neither team could pull away early. Tied at 20-20, consecutive points by the Hoyas forced Xavier (5-13, 3-4 BIG EAST) to burn its final timeout. Trading points over the next four rotations, GU used back-to-back kills from Sinnette to close out the frame with a 25-22 victory.
Georgetown led early in the second set, jumping to a 6-2 lead as the Musketeers called a quick timeout. Flipping the script with a 6-2 run of its own, Xavier knotted things up at 8-8 and eventually took a 13-11 lead. The Hoyas responded with a 6-0 outburst to lead 17-13 and pushed the advantage to set point at 24-22. Evening things up at 24-24, XU forced bonus points and battled off another set point before consecutive kills from
Riley Wertzberger (Dallas, Texas / Richardson) gave Georgetown the 27-25 set win and a two-set lead in the match.
In the third set, a tight start to the frame turned to Georgetown's favor with a 10-6 lead. After a timeout from the Musketeers, the Hoyas pushed their lead to 16-10 and were ahead 20-15 before Xavier began to mount a comeback. A 6-1 run from the hosts knotted things up at 21-21 and XU retook the lead at 23-22 to force a timeout from the Blue & Gray. Coming out of the huddle, the Hoyas closed out the match with three unanswered points, including a two-straight kills from Speech to seal the win.
Moirah Hopkins led Xavier with nine kills. McKena Estes posted a double-double with 12 assists and 10 digs while Jayda Carlton was credited with seven blocks.
The Hoyas return to action next weekend as the wrap up the first half of BIG EAST play at home against No. 10 Creighton and Providence.
