Alabama
11-3
Georgia
11-3
Alabama Volleyball Falls to Georgia in Straight Sets Friday in Athens
9/22/2017 8:29:00 PM | Volleyball
ATHENS, Ga. – Alabama volleyball fell in straight sets Friday night in its SEC opener at Georgia as the Bulldogs defeated the Tide by set scores of 23-25, 23-25, and 20-25.
Alabama (11-3, 0-1 SEC) was stifled offensively, hitting just .157 as a team while Georgia (11-3, 1-0 SEC) hit .286. Sophomore Ginger Perinar led the team with a season-high 12 kills while freshman Christine Jarman and senior Hayley McSparin were close behind with nine and eight, respectively. McSparin hit .375 in the match, making it five-straight matches above .300 for the middle blocker, and senior Leah Lawrence stuffed a team-leading five blocks.
Georgia found some early momentum in set one, pulling ahead 10-5 before Alabama had to take a timeout. A service ace by Kaylee Thomas would cut the deficit to four points at 14-10 but the Bulldogs widened its lead with three-straight points and the Tide took its second team timeout trailing 17-10. After the break, Alabama would close the gap with a 6-1 run, forcing Georgia to burn its first timeout with the score now 18-16. The Tide would continue to fight back, eventually tying the set at 22-22 and the Bulldogs looked to regroup with its second timeout. Georgia would hold on to win the opening set, 25-23.
The Bulldogs opened set two with a 6-2 run but the Tide would fight back to retake the lead with an 8-2 run, forcing Georgia to take a timeout now trailing Alabama, 10-8. After three more lead changes, a 4-0 run put the Tide back in front, 19-17, and the Bulldogs took its second team timeout. The 10th tie score of the set came at 20-20 and then a kill from Georgia gave the home team the one-point lead as Alabama regrouped with a timeout. Later tied at 23-23, Georgia would score back-to-back points and win set two by the same score as set one, 25-23, to take a 2-0 match lead.
Georgia scored the first two points of set three, but Alabama answered back with five-straight, capped with a block from Lawrence and Meghan Neelon and the Bulldogs took a timeout trailing 5-2. Georgia would tie it three times before retaking the lead, 10-9, and Alabama took its first team timeout. The Tide took its second timeout trailing 19-15 and would find itself trailing by four again at set point, 24-20, before Georgia ended it with a kill to complete the three-set sweep.
Next up, Alabama travels to Oxford, Miss. to face Ole Miss (8-4, 0-0 SEC) on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 1:30 p.m. CT.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaVBall on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.
