WASHINGTON – Georgetown University's volleyball team fell 3-2 (25-15, 23-25, 25-27, 27-25, 15-10) to visiting St. John's in BIG EAST action on Friday evening. With the loss, the Hoyas drop to 5-17 overall and 1-10 in league play while the Red Storm improves to 14-11 overall and 5-6 in conference action.
"It was great to be back in McDonough after a few weeks away," Head Coach
David Heller said. "We had some great fight is sets two, three, and four. Our pins did a really nice job finding court tonight when we were out of system. Our passing struggled a bit early but we got it back on track. Our block slowed some things down for us to get some great digs in middle back. Ball control unfortunately evaded us in set five, but I loved the fight I saw tonight and the team is ready for another match tomorrow."
Hoya Highlights
How it Happened
- St. John's scored the first four points of the match and jumped to a 10-4 lead to force a Hoya timeout. The Red Storm then pushed its advantage to 10, up 19-9, before closing out the set 25-15.
- Settling in, the Hoyas responded in full to open the second set with leads of 4-1 and 8-2 to force SJU to burn both its timeouts. The Red Storm slowly chipped away at the deficit, coming back to tie things up at 10-10 and lead 17-14. Trading leads down the stretch, a 23-23 tie saw back-to-back points from the Hoyas – capped with a Smith kill – evening the match at one set apiece with the 25-23 victory.
- Almost matching the set before, Georgetown jumped to a 5-1 lead to force a Johnnies timeout but St. John's rallied back to slowly keep pace and knot things up at 20-20 before leading for the first time at 21-20. Trading points back-and-forth, St. John's would get to set point at 25-24, but the Hoyas fought it off coming out of a timeout and scored three-straight to take the frame 27-25.
- The fourth set proved to be another thriller with 10 ties and four lead changes. Battling the entirety of the frame, neither side could gain a significant advantage all the way to a 23-23 tie. A kill by Makana Meyer gave the Hoyas match point at 24-23 but St. John's closed out the match on a 4-1 run to win the set 27-25.
- In the final frame, Georgetown claimed the initial point before the Johnnies went on a 4-0 run to force a GU timeout. The Hoyas rallied back, pulling within one at 8-7 but the Red Storm held off the rest of the way en route to the 15-10 victory.
St. John's Notes
- Rachele Rastelli led the Red Storm with 35 kills to go with eight digs and seven blocks while Georgia Walther had 10 kills, nine digs and four blocks.
- Tiziana Baumrukova paced the offense with 31 assists to go with six digs and Wiktoria Kowalczyk had 19 assists and nine digs.
- Defensively, Ariadni Kathariou had 14 blocks while Sheena Yoshioka had 17 digs and Iliana Rodriguez added 12.
Side Out
The Hoyas continue their weekend homestand on Saturday against Seton Hall at 5 p.m.
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All Georgetown volleyball home matches are currently scheduled to be played at McDonough Arena. In accordance with Washington, D.C. regulations, masks and guest registration are required for attendance at all indoor events on campus. For all attendees of indoor events, Georgetown now requires campus visitors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or attest to having a medical or religious exemption. Links to submitting documentation can be found on the schedule page of the respective sport on GUHoyas.com.
