Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

GU Wins on Senior Day

Georgetown managed to salvage an otherwise bleak Big East season with a 3-0 sweep of DePaul Sunday on Senior Day.

Entering the weekend, the Hoyas (8-17, 2-10) were in the midst of a three-match losing streak in which they lost nine straight games. A Friday night loss to visiting Notre Dame (15-10, 9-3) extended those skids to four and 12. The Fighting Irish ran off wins of 30-21, 30-21 and 30-14 while hitting .356 as a team compared to the Hoyas’ .121. Notre Dame outblocked and outdug Georgetown in a game everyone expected the Irish to win.

Sunday was a different story with Georgetown playing a different role. In its final home game of the season, Georgetown looked like a different team, outclassing last-place DePaul (5-22, 0-11 Big East).

“We came out and just played high energy from the beginning,” Georgetown Head Coach Arlisa Hagan said about her team’s second conference victory of the season.

The Hoyas built a quick 14-7 lead in game one on the strength of four blocks. The Blue Demons tried to stage a comeback, but they gave up five points on poor setting attempts and fell 30-23.

DePaul was without its usual setter, freshman Emily McGinnis, who suffered a concussion in a match against Syracuse nearly a month ago and has not played since. Freshman outside hitter Sarah Cullen filled in, but was unable to provide any consistency to the Blue Demon attack.

“If you don’t have a setter that’s been trained at that position it makes it really difficult to run your offense, and that’s just the difficulty they ran into as we served competitively,” Hagan said.

Game two was a dogfight, as DePaul held a slight advantage at the outset until Georgetown tied it at 15.

There were six more ties before a kill from sophomore middle blocker Kit Niesen gave the Hoyas the lead for good at 23-22. Georgetown won seven of the next 10 points to win 30-25 and take a 2-0 lead in the contest.

The first four points of game three went to the Hoyas, but the Blue Demons stayed around to make the game interesting. With the score at 19-16, Niesen recorded two straight kills and a block to give Georgetown a six-point lead which they extended to a 30-20 game victory.

The win landed the Hoyas in a tie for 12th place in the Big East and, barring several unforeseen upsets in the final week of Big East action, ensured that they will not finish last.

“This was just a fun match, we knew we wouldn’t play as a group at home again,” senior middle blocker Annie Connor said. “It feels really good to go out with a win.”

Georgetown received solid contributions across the board, and boasted a commanding edge in hitting percentage as it hit at a .222 clip to DePaul’s anemic .059. Sophomore outside hitter Jessica Buffum had 11 kills and hit .385. Connor recorded 10 kills and hit .320 while Niesen posted eight kills and hit .400.

DePaul was led by senior outside hitter Morgan Ingersoll, who notched a game-high 12 kills.

In a ceremony before the match, the Hoyas honored the team’s three seniors and their families. Connor, right-side hitter Jessica George, and outside hitter Rachel Barton all played in their final match on the Hilltop.

“We’ve had kind of a rough season, but it’s so great for [the seniors] to play well and win because they cherished this program for the last four years,” freshman libero Jessica Hardy said.

Connor, a captain for the last two years, has 828 career kills for an average of 7.7 per match over the past four years.

The seniors have made their presence felt on the Hilltop this season: George is third on the team in blocks and fifth in kills for the season, and Barton has had to fight through two wrist surgeries in her collegiate career – she meticulously wraps both of them before each game.

“Our seniors have been great leaders this year,” Hagan said. “We’ve been up and down and on a roller coaster all year, but when you have leadership like that from your seniors it only bodes well as you try to train your younger kids.”

Georgetown wraps up the season this weekend against two of the Big East’s best as they travel to Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Ky. The Hoyas will take on the fifth-place Bearcats (19-6, 8-4) Friday at 3 p.m. and the second-place Cardinals (18-6, 11-1) Sunday at 2 p.m.

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