WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's volleyball team opened the Dig The District Invitational with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 26-24) victory over visiting Morgan State on Friday afternoon. With the win, the Hoyas even their record to 5-5 on the season while the Lady Bears fall to 5-7.
Georgetown moves to 6-0 all-time against Morgan State.
Iva Vujosevic (Bar, Montenegro / Niko Rolovic / UMES) led the Hoyas with a match-high 17 kills while hitting at a sizzling .516 from the outside.
Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill. / Oak Park-River Forest) added nine kills and
Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas / Dawson) chipped in seven. As a team, the Blue & Gray hit a solid .365 in the match including a hot .515 in the final set.
Margo Pivonka (Broadview Heights, Ohio / Walsh Jesuit) paced the offense with 40 assists to go with seven digs and four kills.
Defensively,
Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va. / Forest Park) tied for the match lead with 15 digs.
A tightly-contested match from start to finish, each frame was decided by just two points. In the opener, eight ties and three lead changes highlighted the set. Tied at 7-7, the Hoyas used runs of 5-1 and 4-0 to take a 17-12 lead, but the Lady Bears rallied back with a 5-0 run to knot things up at 17-17 to force a Georgetown timeout. A 3-0 run out of the huddle gave GU a 20-17 advantage, but another 5-2 spurt from the visitors gave Morgan State a 23-22 lead. Unfettered, the Hoyas racked off three-straight points to close out the set, capped by a block from
Brennan Wilhite (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. / Cathedral Catholic / USC) and
Margo Snipe (Washington, D.C. / Ridgewood [N.J.]).
The second set saw similar back-and-forth action with 11 ties and five lead changes. Tied up at 9-9, the Hoyas used a 4-0 run to lead 13-9 behind the strong serving of
Jessica Cusi (Pacifica, Calif. / Lick-Wilmerding). Morgan State would respond, posting a pair of 5-1 runs down the stretch to take a 23-20 lead. Unwilling to concede, the Blue & Gray battled back with five unanswered points to seal the set victory.
Morgan State jumped to an early 4-1 lead in the fourth set and pushed its advantage to 7-3 before the Hoyas pulled even at 11-11. Trading points down the stretch, neither squad would manage any more than a point lead until the Bears posted a 3-0 run to take a 22-19 lead. With MSU then taking a 23-20 lead, Georgetown responded with a 3-0 run of its own behind consecutive Vujosevic kills to force a Morgan State timeout, and gained its first match point on the ensuing rally from another Vujosevic putaway. Although the Bears held off the initial match point to tie things up at 24-24, back-to-back kills from Speech and
Riley Wertzberger (Dallas, Texas / Richardson) won the contest for the Blue & Gray.
Cristen Coryatt led Morgan State with 12 kills while Zoe McBride added 11.
Georgetown returns to action on Saturday with a pair of matches to conclude the Dig The District Invitational. The Hoyas take on Alabama A&M at 11 a.m. before wrapping up the event against Loyola Maryland at 7 p.m. Live stats and a broadcast can be found on www.GUHoyas.com featuring Monika Moore providing the play-by-play.
