Bruce's double-double not enough in 5-set loss

After a tough opening loss to Midway, Georgetown looked to rebound on Saturday starting with a morning matinee against Trinity Christian. The action was tight and intense back and forth and ultimately needed a 5th set to determine a winner. That winner was Trinity Christian as it took down the Tigers 15-7 in the 5th for the match win.

Georgetown came roaring out of the gates in the opener. The first of Gareth Bruce's 13 kills capped off a 4-0 run for GC to start the match. Trinity Christian settled in and began chipping away at the deficit. With Georgetown leading 10-8, the Trolls then quickly ripped off 4 straight for a 12-10 lead, Georgetown to call a timeout to regroup. The Tigers got the message. Led by freshman Faith Miller, Georgetown scored 5 in a row to rocket back into the lead. In the run, Miller tallied 3 assists and a kill all while on serve. After a serve error, Georgetown scored 3 more to take an 18-13 edge and send Trinity Christian to a timeout. The Trolls could not recover and never got closer than 4 points the rest of the way. Makena Walker ultimately sealed the deal with a final kill to give the Tigers a 25-17 opening win.

Set 2 was a tussle in the early going. Georgetown took a 2-1 lead before a 4-0 Trolls run. Georgetown answered back with their own run of 4 to take a 6-5 lead. Trinity Christian countered with a 5-1 run of its own to move ahead of the Tigers, 10-7. GC got 2 back before the Trolls went on a 6-1 run to surge ahead, 16-10. The Tigers again made a run. Led by Giara Ferrari and Ana Darr on the front line, Georgetown fought its way back to get the deficit to 1 at 18-17; however, this would be as close as the Tigers would get. Trinity Christian slowly seized control back and thanks to 3 Tiger serve errors and attack errors, the Trolls took the set 25-19 to even the match.

The 3rd set proved another see-saw battle. The Trolls raced out to a 5-0 lead, before Constanca Rosas led Georgetown with the next 4 and forced a TC timeout. An Ana Darr kill got the Tigers within 7-6 but the Trolls scored 6 of the next 7 to rocket out to a 13-7 advantage. Playing from behind again, Georgetown would not go away. Similar to the 2nd set, the Tigers fought back within a point at 20-19 and 21-20 but again could not draw level. 2 errors at 21-20 gave the Trolls the momentum back and it proved the difference as Georgetown dropped the 3rd set, 25-22 to push the Tigers to the brink.

Playing with a sense of nothing to lose, Georgetown let it rip to start the 4th set and Trinity Christian had no answers. Before the Trolls knew what hit them to take a timeout, Georgetown had rushed out to a 10-3 lead. Ironically, the decision to wait on a timeout proved a good one by the Trolls. It took Georgetown totally out of rhythm as the Tigers commited 5 straight errors as part of a 6-0 run that got the Trolls back within 1 at 10-9. Giara Ferrari took control with 2 kills as part of a 4-0 Georgetown counter for a 14-9 Tiger lead. Trinity Christian called its 2nd timeout after a Gareth Bruce kill with the Tigers ahead, 17-12. Bruce would later cap another run of 4 straight as the lead swelled to 22-14, propelling the Tigers to a 4th set win by a 25-17 score.

Set 5 was a series of mini-runs over the first 10 points. Trinity Christian scored the first 2 in the race to 15. Georgetown answered with the next 2. The next 3 went back to the Trolls for a 5-2 lead. Kills from Bruce, Darr and an ace from Reese Speed tied the set at 5. The big break in the set then followed as the Trolls scored 5 unanswered and Georgetown never recovered. Ultimately, the Tigers hit -.125 in the 5th, while the Trolls hit a staggering .636 with no attack errors in taking the 5th set, 15-7, to win the match.

Gareth Bruce paced the Tigers with 13 kills and a stout 10 digs. Faith Miller moved the offense well with 31 assists. Constanca Rosas and Ana Darr combined for 20 kills up front. Reese Speed continued her nice start to 2024 with 11 digs in the back.