The Georgetown volleyball team recorded its 10th win of the season and fourth of conference play against Villanova in a hard-fought match Saturday night in McDonough Arena.

The Hoyas (10-13, 4-6 Big East) did not give up on victory, despite losing a two-set lead, and managed to outlast their conference rivals, the Wildcats (12-11, 4-6 Big East), in a five-set thriller.

“It feels really good. We have 10 wins now, so it’s pretty exciting for us,” sophomore outside hitter Lauren Saar said.

Villanova jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first set due to Georgetown errors, but after the Wildcats recorded five errors of their own, the score was tied at 9-9.

It remained tight until the Hoyas went on a 6-2 scoring run fueled by three kills and a service ace. Junior middle blocker Dani White closed out the first set 25-19 with a solo block.

“We served extremely well, and they had a difficult time staying in system,” Head Coach Arlisa
Williams said.

The second set was closely contested from the beginning, After an early Georgetown lead, Villanova pushed ahead 22-21, but Georgetown bounced right back, knotting it up at 23 and then closing the match with a kill from Saar and a service ace from freshman setter Caitlin Brauneis.

Saar had a season-high 21 kills, seven of which came in the second set.

“We were taking nice high swings away from their libero, and we were able to do that because we passed extremely well,” Williams said.

After the break, though, Georgetown looked like a different team, and it was Villanova who dominated, cruising to a 25-15 victory that put them only one set back.

“They made a couple of changes coming out of the locker room for the third set,” Williams said. “They flipped their outsides, so the matchup was different, which gave us a little bit of stress.”

The fourth set ended similarly, with the Wildcats making an 8-0 run and scoring 11-of-12 points, making the score 21-9. They would win the set easily, 25-12, tying the match at two sets apiece and sending it to the decisive fifth.

“They moved their libero to middle back, so we had to take more extreme swings, and it took us a little time to figure out how to do that,” Williams said. “And they served us really tough, and so we weren’t in system nearly as much as we had been in the first and second set. We had a double block in front of us quite a bit.”

Despite the lopsided scores in the third and fourth, the Hoyas came out in top form in the fifth set, scoring the first two points and then taking a 5-3 lead.

“We just wanted to erase those last two sets because we played super well in the first two and came out strong,” Saar said. “We went down a little bit in the third and fourth, so we just played like we started and I think it showed in that last set.”

After a couple of kills, a controversial no-call and a Villanova error, Georgetown closed the set on a decisive kill from junior outside hitter Alex Johnson to take the set 16-14 and win the match.

“We knew it was going to be tough, we knew it was going to be a battle, but … I think that they were feeling pretty confident coming into the game, and we knew that this was going to be a big win for us if we could get it,” Williams said.

Saar registered her 15th double-double of the season with 21 kills and 14 digs, and Johnson had one as well with 10 kills and 15 digs. White had 13 kills and freshman middle blocker Ashlie Williams had 11.

But the biggest stat of the night was defensive specialist Emily Gisolfi’s team-high 22 digs, a new personal best for the sophomore.

This was a huge win for the Blue and Gray, especially after losing to Villanova earlier this season.

“I think it just bodes well for our team. They came back out, they played tough late and I think it’s just going to give us more confidence as we move forward,” Williams said.