Phoenix defending gets best of Tigers

After taking a marathon 1st set, Georgetown struggles with its offense against Cumberland over the next 3 sets, en route to a 3-1 win for the Phoenix, which keeps the Tigers winless in MSC play.

Both teams played at a high level in the opener. Georgetown tallied 17 kills to Cumberland's 14. The teams each hit over .240, including an impressive .324 for Georgetown. The Tigers' offense kept the team in the lead for much of the set. GC had 5-point leads on 3 occassions and once led by 6 at 21-15, but the Phoenix would not go away. CU answered with a 4-1 run to close within 22-19. At 23-19, Cumberland went on another 4-1 to get within 24-23. The teams would trade points until a kill from Makena Walker and 2 from Olivia Mitchell put Georgetown over the top to take the set, 29-27.

Georgetown would lead only 3 more times the rest of the match. Those came early in the 3rd and 4th sets. The Tigers could only manage an early tie in the 2nd, before Cumberland went on a run and never looked back. The Phoenix took the 2nd comfortably at 25-13. In the 3rd, Georgetown took an early 4-3 lead, but Cumberland responded with 7 in a row and 10 of 12 to storm out to a 13-6 lead. The Tigers called a timeout to regroup, but Cumberland rode the momentum to a 25-15 win.

In set 4, the Phoenix put together a series of mini-runs early to take a 4-point lead at 12-8. It set the stage for another big run as Cumberland scored 6 of the next 7, pushing the lead to 18-9. Georgetown scored 2 of the next 3 to get within 19-11, but another CU run aided by 4 GC attack errors, finished off the set and match at 25-11 in the 4th.

After the strong first set with 17 kills, the Tigers managed a total of 17 over the final 3 sets, while the Phoenix put up 17, 10, and 12 kills over the last 3, hitting nearly .400 in the process.

Makena Walker led the Tigers with 12 kills and hit .375. Viannie Kazan and Ines Marques combined for 27 assists.

Georgetown returns to Davis-Reid Alumni Gym on Thursday at 7:00pm to face Midway.