The Georgetown volleyball team (12-10, 4-5 Big East) will travel north to take on Seton Hall (13-10, 4-4 Big East) in East Orange, N.J., Friday, then head down the Jersey Turnpike to Piscataway to take on Rutgers (8-17, 1-7 Big East) Sunday.
The Hoyas enter the road trip with a good deal of momentum, as they achieved their first back-to-back home wins of the season last weekend by beating St. John’s in four sets and knocking off Connecticut in a five-set thriller.
“Overall I think we played well and did what we needed when we needed [it],” Head Coach Arlisa Williams said. “We outhit and out-dug St. John’s and played low-error volleyball against UConn and just kept throwing things at them,” she added.
The Blue and Gray currently sit in 10th place in the Big East, and two wins this weekend would not only bolster their chances of making the Big East tournament but would also improve their league record to over .500.
The Pirates, who currently sit in the coveted eighth spot in the league standings, are the first roadblock for the Hoyas. They have dropped their last three matches, but despite these recent struggles boast a very strong defense that ranks fourth in the league in opponents’ hitting percentage at .166.
Seton Hall is led by a pair of freshman left-handed twin sisters in setter Shelbey Manthorpe and outside hitter Stacey Manthorpe. Shelbey is a multi-dimensional player who has posted 691 assists on the year, while Stacey has tallied 206 kills.
Last year’s second team All-Big East senior outside hitter Meghan Matusiak leads the way in kills for the Pirates with 282. Senior middle blocker Krissy Wrobel has also been solid, leading the team with a .289 hitting percentage.
“[Seton Hall] does a great job blocking and has a scrappy defense behind the block, and balls that we’ve seen gone down in a whole lot of matches won’t go down,” Williams said. “You’re talking about a team that has firepower at every position.”
Rutgers, on the other hand, would appear to pose less of a threat to the Hoyas, as they are second-to-last place in the league standings and rank near the bottom of most statistical categories. However, they beat Seton Hall in straight sets two weeks ago, and Williams has yet to earn a win at Rutgers in her five seasons as head coach.
Senior middle blocker Hannah Curtis is the on-court leader for the Scarlet Knights, leading the team with 222 kills and 69 blocks. However, Rutgers also has two talented young outside hitters in redshirtfreshman Sofi Cocuz and redshirt junior Alex Jones, who have tallied 191 and 161 kills, respectively.
“Rutgers does some really good things and plays really well at their gym, so we’re going to have to go up there and really take care of our stuff,” Williams said. “Curtis is effective for them and can terminateballs.”
Williams is fully aware of the importance of the two matches in Georgetown’s Big East Tournament hopes.
“In order to control our fate right now, we need to go out and play low-error volleyball and control our style of play,” she said.
The match against Seton Hall is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in East Orange, and the Sunday match against Rutgers will begin at 2 p.m. in Piscataway.
