Senior miiddle blocker Dani White notched 10 kills in Friday’s loss against Marquette, and seven more in Saturday’s win over DePaul.
The Georgetown volleyball team (7-11, 1-4 Big East) split road conference matches this weekend with a straight-sets loss against the Marquette Golden Eagles (12-4, 3-1 Big East) and a straight-sets win against the DePaul Blue Demons (3-13, 1-3 Big East).
Marquette defeated Georgetown Friday night in a win (25-18, 25-15, 25-13) on its home court. The Golden Eagles led through the entirety of the first set, which they closed on a 10-4 run, despite the Hoyas’ ability to cut the lead to 13-10 early on.
“They’re 30-3 in the Big East since 2011, and so when you go up against a team like that, it is really just about how you handle your side of the net because you kind of know what’s coming at you — there’s not going to be any surprises,” senior middle blocker Dani White said.
Georgetown managed to keep up with Marquette at the beginning of the second set, with five tied scores and two lead changes. However, with the score tied 6-6, the Golden Eagles began a 5-1 run to widen the scoring deficit. Notching three more points to make the score 11-9 was the closest Georgetown would get in the second set, which it went on to lose 25-15. Marquette closed out the last set 25-13 to defeat Georgetown.
White dominated on the offensive end for the Hoyas with 10 kills, while senior outside hitter Alex Johnson hit the career 1,000-kill milestone with seven kills in the game. Senior libero MacKenzie Simpson had 13 digs and sophomore setter Caitlin Brauneis had 19 assists.
“Alex and I have started all four years of our career, so being able to help her get that final milestone was huge,” White said.
The Friday night loss against Marquette was Georgetown’s eighth loss in a row, but White says that those numbers should not be taken at face value.
“Though the losing streak looks awful on paper, [if you look at] the specifics of each match and each game, we are right there with historically the top four teams of this conference,” White said.
The Hoyas’ Saturday night straight-sets victory (25-14, 25-23, 25-15) in Chicago against DePaul marked its first win since Sept. 13 and snapped the eight-game losing streak. Johnson racked up a further 14 kills and 10 digs. Freshman outside hitter Terese Cannon added 10 kills, while sophomore middle blocker Ashlie Williams had 13 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Saar served four aces, while Johnson added three service aces of her own. Simpson led the team in digs with 15.
“We served extremely well this weekend, and I think that our passing stepped up and we were able to terminate some more balls,” Head Coach Arlisa Williams said.
Georgetown began the match quickly and gained a 10-2 lead over DePaul in the first set. Though the Blue Demons managed to narrow the lead to five, the Hoyas pulled away to win the first set 25-14.
Senior outside hitter Alex Johnson had 14 kills and 10 digs in a 3-0 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons Saturday. Johnson surpassed the 1,000 career kill mark in a straight-sets away loss to Marquette the day before.
The second set was much closer, with DePaul jumping out to a 4-1 lead. Fifteen tied scores and eight lead changes characterized the remainder of the set, but Georgetown came out on top in the end with a kill from Williams to win 25-23.
“In the second set, DePaul picked up their passing a little bit,” Coach Williams said. “I think that we served pretty aggressively, and the first set they could not get in system to run their offense. In the second set, they were a little bit closer, and then we just stepped it up at the end to close it.”
The Hoyas started strong in the third set with a 15-4 lead, and DePaul couldn’t recover.
“Our players, I think, came out of the locker room after the break with a mindset that we are just going to crush this,” Coach Williams said.
Johnson sealed the Blue Demons’ fate with her 14th kill of the night to win the match.
“I think the DePaul match allowed us to finally come together,” Coach Williams said. “We just played a solid match from beginning to end, and our players were relaxed. They were confident, they were comfortable and they just went out there and executed in the way we know they’re capable of.”
Georgetown will continue on with road conference matches against Villanova and Seton Hall this upcoming weekend. Coach Williams is optimistic about the Hoyas’ chances.
“The fact that we know that we can win is just a huge confidence booster for us, and we have a lot of preparation to do for this weekend,” Coach Williams said.
