Virginia drops neutral site match with No. 18 Georgia Tech, 3-0

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia Cavaliers (2-10, 0-10 ACC) dropped a neutral site matchup with No. 18 Georgia Tech (8-1, 8-1 ACC) on Sunday afternoon, 3-0, at Pitt’s Fitzgerald Field House. GT won the match 29-27, 25-12, 25-18.

Christine Jarman led UVA with 12 kills, while Jayna Francis and Sarah Billiard added nine each in the losing effort. Megan Wilson added 30 assists.

“I thought our offense made some big strides this weekend,” UVA coach Aaron Smith said. “Megan [Wilson] did a great job diversifying the offense and riding hot hitters. Our serve receive broke down in set two versus Georgia Tech today, otherwise we kept ourselves in good position to side out. We knew Georgia Tech had a strong offense and they showed it today. While I thought we were able to slow Pitt down at times on Saturday night, we just couldn’t find the rhythm with our defense and transition offense today. We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend against two strong opponents and I believe we can make some improvements in a short time to be even more prepared for next weekend’s matchups.”

SET 1: GT 29-27

The Cavaliers spent most of the first set in control, only trailing 3-2 until the Yellow Jackets took a 24-23 lead on a kill by Erin Moss. Jarman was humming in the first set for the Cavaliers with seven kills, while Francis added five.

At set-match, 24-23, Francis stung one home to tie the set at 24-24. Georgia Tech held set-match at 24-23, 25-24, 26-25, 27-26 and 28-27 before wrapping up a hard fought first set on an ace by Julia Bergmann. UVA battled as kills by Francis (24-24), Czhen Beneby (25-25), Jarman (26-26) and Mattison Matthews (27-27) brought the Cavaliers even when facing set-match.

SET 2: GT 25-12

Georgia Tech jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in the second set and never looked back. The Yellow Jackets followed up with a 16-7 streak, taking a commanding 23-9 lead in the set.

Kills by Francis, Laila Rogers and an ace from Billiard brought the Cavaliers a mini 3-0 run, but kills by GT’s Mikaila Dowd and Moss secured the set for the Yellow Jackets.

SET 3: GT 25-18

The Cavaliers took an early 3-2 lead, courtesy of two kills by Billiard. That was the last lead of the set for UVA as Georgia Tech maintained control via an 8-1 run to take a 10-4 lead in the set.

UVA and GT traded points back and forth as the score matured to 19-11, with the advantage still toward GT. The Yellow Jackets won the next three points to make it 22-11 after a kill from Kayla Kaiser. The Cavaliers went on a 7-1 run, which was capped by a Billiard kill to cut GT’s lead to 23-18. GT took the next two points to win the match.