Hoya Staff Writer Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Hoyas dropped three decisions at the Stanford Invitational last weekend, but despite the losses the squad gained valuable experience while on the West Coast. “The Hoyas had a great weekend we just played in a great volleyball environment,” Georgetown Head Coach Arlisa Hagan said. The Hoyas lost a 3-2 decision to UC Irvine on Thursday and lost 3-0 to both Stanford and Santa Clara on Friday and Saturday, respectively at the event in Stanford, Calif. Georgetown turned in its best performance of the weekend on Thursday when it took the match against UC Irvine (3-8) to a decisive fifth game, but the team eventually lost 3-2 (30-21, 20-30, 30-26, 26-30, 15-8). Though Georgetown did not add to its win total, the Hoyas enjoyed the competition with their West Coast opponents. “We had a great match against Irvine. It was just a long, tough five-game match,” Hagan said. “We got down early in the fifth game and had a hard time playing catch-up but the rest of the match, we fought hard.” Sophomore outside hitter Jessica Buffum and senior middle blocker Annie Connor led Georgetown (5-6) on offense, recording 27 kills and 11 blocks between the two of them. Georgetown nearly mirrored UC Irvine in hitting percentage (.145 to .142), but Georgetown was outblocked just as it was for all of its games this weekend. The Anteaters held an 18-15 edge in the all-important category. UC Irvine posted three blocks in the fifth game, including one to end the match. After taking a 9-2 lead in the decisive game (played to 15), UC Irvine capitalized on ball handling errors by Georgetown and put away the match. “It was a lot of fun,” Buffum said. “It was great playing against that kind of competition, something we haven’t done before.” On Friday, Georgetown faced then-No. 7 Stanford and was overall outplayed by the contenders for the national title. The Cardinal (9-1) came into the game with a six-game winning streak and only one 3-1 loss on the season, to No. 16 Bringham Young University. Those three games are the only ones Stanford has lost all year. The Cardinal held a decisive .289 to .104 advantage in hitting percentage and led 12 to five in blocks. Stanford moved on to a 3-0 (30-20, 30-23, 30-25) victory. Buffum led the team with 13 kills while junior outside hitter Katie Nulty led Georgetown with 14 digs at the libero position. “We improved in every game against Stanford,” Hagan said, “In the third game, Stanford had to take a time out because the Hoyas were on a roll. It was very indicative of the kind of play I expect to see from the Hoyas later in the season.” Hagan complimented the Stanford crowd of 2,000 that was happy to recognize the quality volleyball Georgetown played. “They have a great crowd. They cheered for us when we played good volleyball and what could have been a hostile environment was very positive. And when our five [starters from California] came out, they all got big cheers,” Hagan said. In a match against similar talent, Georgetown lost 3-0 to No. 8 UC Santa Clara. Robinson led the offensive effort with seven kills; she also led the Hoyas with a .375 hitting percentage. Again, the Hoyas were outhit, .266 to .041 and outblocked nine to four on the day. Those numbers and a -.185 hitting percentage in the first game led to a 3-0 (30-22, 30-16, 30-21) victory for the Broncos to wrap up the road trip. After two long games, Georgetown did not have enough left in its tank to finish as strong as it could have against Santa Clara. “I think we used up all of our emotional energy against Stanford and didn’t come out to play as well as we could have,” Hagan said, “But I don’t think that’s the kind of play you’re going to see from the Hoyas this year.” Quickly becoming a refrain this season, Buffum was named to the all-tournament team for the third time this year. Even amidst the losing efforts, Georgetown’s players were happy to be amongst friends in California where six of the 13 players call home. Senior middle blocker Annie Connor, juniors setter Kate Fisher, outside hitter Katie Nulty, Buffum, freshmen outside hitter Jessica Hardy and middle blocker Kirsten McCoy all hail from California and all had a large groups of family and friends cheering on the Hoyas. “It was a lot of fun to go back,” Buffum said. “We had a lot of fans cheering during the games for us. I think against Santa Clara Annie Connor had like 26 family members there.” The matches against No. 6 Stanford and No. 8 Santa Clara provided a level of competition that has not been seen in Georgetown volleyball schedules of past seasons. The increasing depth of the Big East conference among Notre Dame, Louisville and Cincinnati, top teams this year, means that out of conference games like the series in Stanford will be critical to building this very young Hoya team. “The Big East is getting better and better and it was good to see that type of competition,” Buffum said. “Especially since we’re going to start seeing that level of play in the Big East now.” Georgetown begins its Big East schedule this weekend. They play host to Seton Hall (8-5) on Friday at 7 p.m. in cDonough Gymnasium.

CORRECTION: In the article “Hoyas Lose, but Impress at Stanford Invitational” (THE HOYA, Sept. 19, 2006, B3) Santa Clara University is incorrectly referred to as UC Santa Clara.