The NC State volleyball team looked to seek revenge from the last meeting against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, but instead fell short and lost, 3-2 Friday in Reynolds Coliseum.
The Wolfpack (16-11, 9-6 ACC) came out with high intensity in the first two sets by taking a 2-0 advantage against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets (21-6, 12-3 ACC) did not give up and fought hard to win three straight sets to seal the win.
“I think a lot of credit goes to Georgia Tech,” head coach Linda Hampton-Keith said. “We knew that this was going to be a tough battle coming into it, credit to them for making some changes and we can’t keep up to them.”
The Wolfpack opened the match by breaking open a 10-4 run. The Pack had four kills with only one error. The Yellow Jackets did not allow that lead to increase any larger. Georgia Tech went on an 8-2 run to tie up the score at 12 a piece. On that run, Georgia Tech tallied seven kills with one error.
The Wolfpack was able to overcome the adversity and pull out the set win, 25-21. Sophomore Teni Sopitan led the Wolfpack with five kills on seven attempts. The Wolfpack tallied 14 kills with three errors in the first set. The Jackets did not fare well in the first set, tallying 16 kills along with nine errors.
“Our team takes a lot of emotional cues from [Sopitan],” Hampton-Keith said. “She’s been getting better at realizing and managing that.”
Georgia Tech opened the second set with great focus, tallying five kills and one assist to have a lead of 11-6. The Wolfpack struggled early, tallying four errors with only five kills.
NC State would not let up, coming back to close out the deficit and win the second set 25-23. The Wolfpack only added on three errors, but tallied eleven more kills. Sopitan continued to dominate by adding seven kills to her totals.
The Yellow Jackets fought hard but was not able to close the second set. The team tallied 12 kills with eight errors on 41 total attempts. Senior outside hitter Teegan Van Gunst led the Yellow Jackets with nine kills on 21 attempts.
The Wolfpack took the 13-10 lead in a tightly contested third set before the first timeout was called. The Yellow Jackets fought off the Wolfpack and sealed the win, 25-18. The Jackets had their best set with tallying 15 kills with only three errors. Van Gunst added five more kills to her totals.
The Wolfpack had its worst set with only tallying 12 kills with seven errors. Junior outside hitter Julia Brown added seven kills and three digs to her totals. The third set entailed three lead changes and eight ties.
Georgia Tech took a 9-3 lead early and never looked back in the fourth set. The Jackets won the set 25-14. Freshman middle blocker Kodie Comby took charge by tallying six kills on eight attempts. The Wolfpack could not find its groove, totaling only nine kills with eight assists in the fourth set.
“We started really strong in the first two sets,” Sopitan said. “Instead of us taking control like we did the first and second set, it turned into us reacting and waiting for things to happen.”
Georgia Tech took an early 8-3 lead and did not look back. The Yellow Jackets won the fifth and final set, 15-7. The Yellow Jackets tallied eight kills with only one error in the set. The Pack tallied five kills with six errors.
The Yellow Jackets made a great comeback to seal the win. The Jackets started out slow but turned things around in the third set. In the last three sets, Georgia Tech tallied a total of 39 kills with seven errors. Van Gunst led the team with 21 points tallying 20 kills with only four errors.
The Pack was unable to finish string and seal the win. The fourth and fifth set, the Pack did not get into the double-digits with kills. Brown ended the game with 19.5 points tallying 19 kills with one block assist. Despite losing a highly competitive match, Sopitan still realized that there are more games again and the team has to stay focus.
“We just have to do what we do best, which is play our game and we’ll get a conference win,” Sopitan said.
The Pack looks to bounce back against Clemson, Sunday at 2 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum.
