WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's volleyball team avenged an earlier season loss with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-20) victory over visiting DePaul in BIG EAST action on Friday evening. The Hoyas salvaged a series split with the Blue Demons and improved to 14-11 overall and 7-6 in league play.
Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas / Dawson) had an impressive offensive performance, tallying a match-high 18 kills while hitting a stellar .577 from the outside.
Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill. / Oak Park-River Forest) added 13 kills while hitting at a .524 clip and
Iva Vujosevic (Bar, Montenegro / Niko Rolovic / UMES) added 12 kills.
Sinnette's production put her over the 1,300 career kills mark as she and fellow senior Speech are now tied for sixth all-time at Georgetown.
Margo Pivonka (Broadview Heights, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) paced the offense with 45 assists.
Olivia King (Ardmore, Pa. / Lower Merion) added an additional seven kills on 13 swings.
Defensively,
Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va. / Forest Park) led all players with 16 digs.
Georgetown opened the match with a 5-2 advantage before the Blue Demons (5-19, 3-10 BIG EAST) responded to knot things up at 8-8. The Hoyas then went on a 7-4 run, capped by a 4-1 outburst, to force a DePaul timeout at 16-12. Out of the break, GU used runs of 5-2 and 4-2 to close out the frame with a 25-16 victory.
Another 5-2 start to the second set for the Blue & Gray was negated by a DePaul 5-2 outburst to force a GU timeout at 7-7. The Blue Demons would eventually take a 13-10 advantage, their largest lead of the contest, but an 8-1 run from Georgetown gave the home team the lead for good. DePaul would pull within a pair late in the set, but the Hoyas held off their guests down the stretch for the 25-21 win.
Georgetown got off to another hot start in the third, taking an early 6-2 lead. Although the Hoyas weren't able to pull away, they never trailed in the set and kept a near-steady four-point lead the rest of the way. A six-point lead at 23-17 was the largest lead for the Blue & Gray before they wrapped up the match with the 25-20 set victory.
Five different Blue Demons tallied five kills to lead DePaul in the match. Donna Brown had a contest-best four blocks in the loss.
Georgetown returns to action on Saturday against No. 19 Marquette at 6 p.m. on the Hilltop. Live stats and video for the match will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.
