Tigers clipped on the road by the Firehawks

The road has not been overly kind to the Georgetown Tigers in 2022. A tough schedule proved itself true on Thursday night as the Tigers were swept at UT-Southern, 25-13, 25-22, and 25-17.

UT-Southern (8-13, 2-4) played one of its better sets of the season in the opener against Georgetown (3-12, 2-3). The Firehawks turned in a 15 kill, 1 error performance in set 1. When combined with a .452 hit percentage, they proved to be unstoppable in the first, winning it comfortably 25-13.

The Tigers best shot came in the 2nd set with solid defending and help from 9 UT-Southern errors. Georgetown trailed 15-11 in the 2nd but were able to draw even at 15 thanks to 4 straight Firehawk errors. The teams would trade points back-and-forth, until UT-Southern took a 20-18 lead. The Tigers fought back, thanks to a service ace from Kayla Mantell and 2 more Firehawk errors, and grabbed a 21-20 lead. However, UT-Southern regrouped, took advantage of 3 late Tiger errors, and rallied to win the set 25-22.

Georgetown was unable to gather momentum back on its side during the set break. UT-Southern seized it even more. The Firehawks raced out to a 5-0 lead in set 3 and never looked back. The Tigers never got the deficit under 4 points the rest of the way, leading to a 25-17 set win and a sweep of the match for UT-Southern.

Credit goes to UT-Southern's defending for the end result. Georgetown committed fewer attack errors (14) than the Firehawks did (15), but the Tigers could only muster 26 kills in the match, compared to 46 for UT-Southern. The Firehawks also took home a 49-39 advantage in the dig column.

Georgetown's road trip continues on Saturday with a trip to Cumberland. First serve is set for 4:00pm ET.