ATLANTA--Senior Christen Garcia had 23 digs and Michelle Trimble had 13 kills with an attack percentage of .500 as the Georgia State volleyball team (9-16, 5-9 CAA) swept the UNC Wilmington Seahawks 3-0 (30-22, 30-24, 30-19) Saturday afternoon. The win moves State to just one game out of the sixth position in the Colonial Athletic Association, the final spot for qualification in the CAA Championships.
"I was very pleased with the intensity we had throughout the match," said Panthers head coach Mike Webster. "We will need to keep increasing the intensity in every match from here on out if we're going to make the CAA Championships."
Game one was even at 6-all until a 4-0 spurt by the Panthers gave the home team a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the way. With the score 11-9, a 9-4 run for the Panthers opened the lead to seven. State would lead by as many as eight in the frame, winning the opener by that margin (30-22) as a hitting error by UNCW ended the game.
The second game was tied at 12-12 when State went on a 4-0 spurt, fueled by a pair of blocks by the Panthers front line. After a timeout and a UNCW point, junior Amy Lusk scored the next four points with a kill and three consecutive service aces to make it 20-13 and give the Panthers an insurmountable advantage. The Seahawks cut the lead to four with the Panthers two points away from game two. This time, Trimble closed the game out in style with a solo block for game point and a kill for the game victory, 30-24.
UNC Wilmington led game three 3-1, but the lead would be very short lived. A 12-0 run by the Panthers ended any Seahawk threat in the game. It began with a kill by Liz Schaab, and after a Garcia service ace, the run was on. Ferreira gave State its first lead of the game with a kill. A block by Leah Tenney and freshman Noelle Boyd added the third point. After a Seahawks' bad set and a kill by Tenney, the Seahawks asked for time to slow the run. After the timeout, another block by Tenney and Boyd made it 8-3. Back-to-back Seahawks hitting errors made it 10-3 and the run was at 9-0. Lusk tacked on a kill to push the run to 10-0. Garcia's second ace of the game made the run 11-0, with the 12th and final point going on the board after a UNCW attack error.
State led game three by as many as 13, as Garcia's third service ace of the game made the score 26-13. The Panthers earned their first match point with the score 29-16. The Seahawks fought off three, but Lusk's match-high 14th kill gave the Panthers a 30-19 win in game three and a 3-0 sweep.
The Panthers dominated the match statistically, hitting .302 as a team (their best mark this season in a match) to UNCW's .095. State had 57 digs compared to UNCW's 49. The Panthers had 49 assists to just 33 for the Seahawks, 9.0 blocks to 5.0 for the visitors, and eight Panthers service aces to two.
Liz Mitchell had 12 kills to lead UNC Wilmington.
The Panthers will return to action this Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. when they host Delaware. "Every match from here on out is huge for us," said Coach Webster. "We really need the support of every Georgia State fan out there for our final two home matches. The team is going out there to give it everything they have; we need our fans to match that effort."
Quick Sets: Garcia's 23 digs were just three off the school record for digs in a three-game match. The senior already holds the school record for digs in a five-game match with 45 against Eastern Kentucky in 2004. She is also the school record holder for career digs. She also topped 400 digs (404) for the season, the third time in her career she has reached that plateau.
- Trimble's .500 attack percentage (13-1-24) is the highest for Georgia State this year in a match.
- Tenney now has 100 total blocks this season, with her 90 block assists marking the most since 2003 for a Panther.
- With nine kills in the match, redshirt junior Ana Paula Ferreira topped the 900-kill mark for her career. Sitting at 902 kills, she needs 98 kills and 168 digs to reach the career 1,000 kills/1,000 digs mark.
- The Panthers improved to 5-5 at home in 2006.
