ATLANTA – Dede Bohannon set a career high for kills as she led the Georgia State volleyball team to its second consecutive win with a thrilling 3-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette Friday night. The Panthers (7-17, 2-8 Sun Belt) avenged a five-set loss to the Ragin' Cajuns (15-9, 5-5) just one week ago. Three of the four sets went into extra points, but the Panthers prevailed 25-19, 27-29, 26-24 and 30-28.
After a tight opening to the match, Georgia State started to assert itself edging away from a 10-9 lead with five straight points including a pair of kills from Bohannon, who finished with a career-best 22 kills on the night. From there, the next three sets were each contested to within two points.
Georgia State held off four set points before it dropped the second frame. It then hit just .140 as a team in the third set despite a sizzling start. The Panthers opened the frame with a 9-0 run and led 11-2 before Louisiana-Lafayette began a methodical comeback. In the end, GSU staved off the Rajin' Cajuns 26-24 after a late ULL flurry of three straight points to tie it at 24-24 before setting up the winning points.
In the deciding frame, the score was tied nine times before ULL surged ahead 18-15. The Panthers trailed by four at set point 24-20 before creating four consecutive points, two errors by ULL and a kill each by Bohannon and Andrea' Ezell. The back-and-forth struggle continued with Bohannon, Ezell, Kristina Stinson and Syndey Hunsley providing kills before Natalia Nieto punched the final point on the board in the win.
Along with Bohannon, three other Panthers had double digit kills including Eliza Zachary with 18 and Hunsley and Stinson each with 10. Bohannon hit .452 with just three errors on 42 attempts, while Zachary hit .457 with two errors on 35 attempts. The team overall hit .217.
Defensively the Panthers came up with 10 total blocks and senior Emily Averbeck had 27 digs. Sophomore Natalia Nieto had a career high 58 assists. The Panthers also had eight total service aces.
"I'm really proud of the effort we gave tonight," head coach Tami Audia said. "Our practice this week dictated how we played on the court tonight. We did what we needed to do and brought our best effort against Louisiana. Our team understands where we sit and what we need to do to rise to the challenge.
"Our offense did a good job at executing. We had a little bit of a ball handling lull in the middle of the match, but we pulled through when we had our backs against the wall. This team believed in itself when it got tight and that's half the battle. We needed to be perfect at certain times and we were when it counted. Now we go on the road and try to get another win."
The Panthers will travel to Louisiana-Monroe to try and make it three in a row. GSU defeated the Warhawks 3-0 on Oct. 20 in Atlanta. The rematch will take place at 2 p.m. ET and live stats will be available.
