Five games into the season, the Georgetown women’s volleyball team was 1-4.
Then, as senior right side hitter and co-captain Kiersten McKoy attested to, enough was enough.
“We got tired of losing,” she said.
After Monday night’s win over cross-town rival Howard University, the squad has improved to a stellar 10-5 and has won seven consecutive matches. The Hoyas defeated the Bison (1-16) in straight sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) at Burr Gymnasium.
Junior middle blocker Vanessa Dorismond and McKoy led the Blue and Gray attack, scoring three block assists each and registering 10 and six kills, respectively.
In the first set, Howard fought its way to a 22-20 lead, but Georgetown battled back. In the end, a
Howard attack error set the table for Dorismond to score the clinching kill and give the Hoyas the early advantage.
“Vanessa gets us out of those tough situations,” McKoy said. “She’s been great for us all year.”
Again in the second game, the Bison jumped ahead of the Hoyas early and held the lead at 20-18. McKoy would then step up for the visitors, sandwiching three Howard errors with two kills of her own. A Howard attack error on the next point sealed the set for Georgetown.
The final frame was all Hoyas. Another Howard blunder gave Georgetown a 9-8 lead that it would sustain throughout the set. Dorismond contributed four kills and McKoy led an 8-1 run to open things up. Sophomore setter Ashley Malone’s ace finished off the Bison, 25-18.
“We came in tired from the tournament over the weekend, and I think we underestimated Howard,” McKoy said. “They’ve improved so much from last year. We didn’t play our best, but in the end we were able to close it out, which is something we weren’t doing earlier this year.”
The Hoyas will travel to New Jersey over the weekend and begin Big East play against Seton Hall and Rutgers. The Hoyas came into the season ranked 11th in the conference but feel that they have been overlooked.
“We want to win both of these matches,” McKoy said. “We want to make it to the Big East tournament, and we want to show teams that we can compete.”
