George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Georgetown
Volleyball Starts Strong with 3-1 Win Over Georgetown
8/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 25, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC -- The George Washington volleyball team opened the 2006 season with a 3-1 victory over crosstown rival Georgetown Friday at American University's Bender Arena. The Colonials prevailed by the scores, 30-28, 24-30, 30-17, 30-27 in a 2-hour, 15-minute classic. The GW-Georgetown match kicked off the first DC Challenge, a round-robin tournament that features American and George Mason in addition to the Colonials and Hoyas. American played host to George Mason later Friday at Bender Arena.
In the 58th renewal of the crosstown rivalry, the teams traded leads throughout game one with Georgetown managing a 27-26 advantage before a pair of Juliene McLaughlin kills, and one by senior Kelly Kabbes, gave the Colonials a 29-27 advantage. The Hoyas scored on a kill before GW junior Janine Brown smashed a cross-court kill deep in the corner for the 30-28 victory.
GW opened game two with five straight points before the Hoyas got untracked and tied the game at 6-6. With the game tied at 11-11, Georgetown went on a 6-0 run and scored nine of the next 10 points for a 20-12 lead. GW battled back to within 26-23 before the Hoyas scored the games final three straight points for a 30-24 victory.
Following a 10-minute intermission, the Hoyas came out flat while GW breezed to a 30-17 victory setting the stage for game four.
Both teams played it close to start game four and were tied at 9-9 before GW scored three straight points and five of six to move out to a 14-10 lead. The Colonials led comfortably at 21-16 before Georgetown made its move and scored the next three unanswered points to get within 21-19. After trading points, the Hoyas scored four straight to take a 24-23 lead prompting GW to call timeout. The Colonials scored three of the next four points to regain the lead at 26-25 as GU called for a timeout. With the score tied at 26-26, GW's Brown smashed two consecutive kills followed by a kill by Georgetown's Caitlin Boland to bring GU within 28-27. McLaughlin answered with a kill and the match ended when Georgetown committed and attack error.
GW's Brown led the Colonials with 17 kills but it was freshman Abby Syverson (Minneapolis, MN) who made a splash in her collegiate debut with 12 kills in 20 attempts with no errors for a .600 hitting percentage. The 6-2 middle hitter also added five block assists. Junior setter Jess Buche replaced starting setter Kaimana Lee during game three and ran the Colonials' offense for the remainder of the match. She contributed four kills in seven attacks to hit .429 with 20 assists, seven digs and four block assists. McLaughlin added a 15-kill, 16-dig double-double while libero Maggie Wright led the Colonials with 21 digs.
Georgetown sophomore Jessica Buffum led all players with a match-high 20 kills while Katie Nulty added 23 digs. GW hit .207 (62-24-184) as a team while GU combined to hit just .122 (55-33-180) for the match. The match marked the head coaching debut for GU's Arlisa Hagan, a former AU player and assistant coach at Florida.
The teams have faced each other on the volleyball court every year for the last 31 years with the Colonials holding a slim 31-27 advantage in the all-time series.
GW (1-0) returns to Smith Center Saturday to host American at 1:00 p.m. followed by a match with George Mason at 7:00 p.m., also at Charles E. Smith Athletic Center. Smith Center also hosts matches between GMU and Georgtown at 11 a.m. and American vs. Georgetown at 5:00 p.m. Saturday.
