Volleyball falls on Senior Night

Before Friday's home finale against Freed-Hardeman, Georgetown was able to pay tribute and say thank you to Gareth Bruce, Reese Speed and Makena Walker as they took the floor on Senior Night, to play at Davis-Reid Alumni Gym for the last time. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the match went the other way as Freed-Hardeman came away with a straight sets win.

Georgetown got off to a nice start in the opener by taking an early 5-3 lead. Freed-Hardeman responded with 7 of the next 8 points to assume a 10-6 lead and force the Tigers into a timeout. With the deficit at 14-10, Georgetown got a kill and block from Giara Ferrari, along with a kill from Makena Walker, to pull within 1 and force the Lions to call for time. The move paid off as the Lions scored 9 of the next 12 to take a 23-17 lead. Georgetown called its final timeout, but the lead was too much as FHU took the opener, 25-20.

Set 2 was all Freed-Hardeman from the start. The Lions scored the 1st 5 points and 8 of the 1st 10 to take command. The Tigers got 3 straight back thanks to a kill from Maria Alves and strong serving from Viannie Kazan. Georgetown kept fighting and got as close as 1 at 11-10, before the Lions offense took over. Freed hit .423 in the set and ended it on a 14-6 run for a 25-16 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

The 3rd set was close in the early going. Georgetown got out to a 3-1 lead but Freed bounced back for the tie. As the set went on, the Tigers slowly began to separate from the Lions as strong defending helped build a lead of 5 at 18-13. Freed-Hardeman called a timeout and the move paid off. The Lions scored 4 unanswered to get back within 1. The teams traded points until Georgetown had a late lead of 22-20. A Lion ace and kill tied the set at 22 and sent the Tigers to a timeout. A Faith Miller kill and Viannie Kazan ace gave the Tigers 2 set points, but Georgetown could not close it out. Another Lions kill and ace tied the set at 24. Freed then got a block at the net followed by another kill to close the set with 4 straight and win it, 26-24, to sweep the match.

On Senior Night, Gareth Bruce finished with 8 kills, 6 digs, 2 assists, 2 aces and a solo block. Reese Speed tallied 14 digs as the libero, while Makena Walker finished with 7 kills, 2 digs and hit .294.

The Tigers close out the MSC regular season on Tuesday night at Cumberland. First serve is set for 7:30pm. Georgetown then heads to Rio Grande next Saturday for a tri-match day against the Red Storm and Alice Lloyd to close out the regular season.