For the second straight night the Georgia State volleyball team stepped up and played some of its best defense of the year. Unfortunately, the Panthers could not overcome a pair of Huskie triple-doubles as the Panthers fell 3-1 (27-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-22) to Northeastern on Saturday night.
Junior Ashley Jones scored her 16th double-double of the season to lead the Panthers. Jones landed 10 kills and 14 assists, as well as nine digs, falling one dig shy of her seventh triple-double of the season which would have tied her with Stanford's Cassidy Litchman for the national lead. Jones has missed five triple-doubles this season by just one dig.
The loss dropped Georgia State to 16-12 and 3-9 in the CAA. The win improved Northeastern to 14-11 and 7-5 in the CAA. The Huskies still have an outside shot to qualify for the CAA Championship which will only take the top four teams this season with one week to play.
Redshirt-junior Audrey Cantrell scored 23 digs to move within 29 of the single-season record held by Kumi Ishiyama since 2002. Cantrell has 484 digs this season, the third-most in a single season. The Rockwall, Texas native also moved within 37 of Ana Paul Ferreira (2003-07) for fourth on the all-time digs list.
Freshman Jamiee Freeman finished one kill shy of a career-high with nine, while adding 18 of the Panthers 83 digs. Freeman also scored four total blocks as Georgia State finished the match with three block solos and 20 block assists.
Junior Raquel Jones, who has continued to see more playing time since transferring to State, scored four kills and seven total blocks, one shy of a career-high.
Senior Jocelyn Waldern, playing her final road match for the Panthers, finished with six kills and 11 digs, along with a pair of service aces. Georgia State entered the weekend fifth in the NCAA in service aces per set, scoring a total of five on Saturday evening.
Sophomore Muki Kangwa finished the match with five kills and seven digs, while fellow sophomore Chelsea Perry added a team-high 16 assists.
Redshirt-sophomore Vineece Verdun added six kills and five total blocks for State.
Northeastern scored triple-doubles from Britney Brown and Jessica Tkachuk. Brown scored 20 kills, 22 assists and 14 digs, while Tkachuk finished the match with 14 kills, 25 assists and 19 digs.
Leah Neubeck added a 34 digs as the Huskies swept the Panthers in the season series.
The Panthers return home for Senior Weekend next Friday, for the final weekend of the regular season. Georgia State will take on VCU at 5:30 p.m., before closing the season against William & Mary on Sunday at noon. State will honor lone senior Jocelyn Waldern in pre-match ceremonies on Friday night.
