ATLANTA – Georgia State's volleyball team won a big home match on Friday night against the second-place team in the Sun Belt, Texas State. The Panthers (5-14, 3-7) won the match 3-1 over the Bobcats (13-9, 8-2).
Junior Natalia Nieto dished out 45 assists and had a double-double with 10 digs, her sixth of the year. Junior Deidra Bohannon had a double-double of her own with 14 kills and 13 digs. Junior Eliza Zachary added a team-high 17 kills on .371 hitting with two blocks and fellow junior Kitan Ajanaku hit .538 with nine kills and two blocks.
“What a great spread of our offense. Multiple players stepped up tonight. Great defense by our team as well. Every day, we're getting better and it's fun to see the product on the court,” head coach Sally Polhamus said.
NOTING THE PANTHERS…
- Georgia State won 25-13, 16-25, 25-23, 25-22.
- Natalia Nieto led all players with 45 assists. The performance moved her into seventh all-time on Georgia State's career assists list. She needs just six assists to move into sixth.
- Five Panthers recorded five or more kills. Eliza Zachary and Deidra Bohannon had 17 and 14 kills respectively to give the Panthers an edge on offense. Kitan Ajanaku posted nine kills on a team-high .538 hitting. Andrea Book had 6 kills on .417 hitting and added a block. Kristina Stinson finished the match with five kills and two blocks.
- Gabby Serafin's 18 digs led the team on defense. It was the second-highest total for the junior this season. She recorded 26 in last Wednesday's 3-1 win over Georgia Southern.
- Georgia State outhit the Bobcats .250-.173. Texas State had more team blocks with seven compared to GSU's five.
On defense, Georgia State had 57 digs, 18 of them coming from junior libero Gabby Serafin. The Panthers outhit the Bobcats .250-.173, including a .483 hitting percentage in Set 1.
“We focused on defense a lot this week,” Serafin said. “This was a team win and it gives us a lot of confidence moving forward. We gave it our all tonight and the whole team played well.”
The exciting four-set match was full of ups and downs. Georgia State's ability to get good looks on offense set the pace for the game as the Bobcats struggled to put point runs together.
“Especially when we're passing well, we have all of our attackers available. Natalia [Nieto] set a great match. She found the right hitters and they terminated. Texas State is a gritty, defensive team. This was a hard-fought match and a fun match,” Polhamus said.
Georgia State began the match on fire and built up a 10-point lead over the Bobcats at 18-8. Texas State used both of its timeouts, but could not slow down the Panther attack. Five Panthers recorded a kill in the first set with junior Eliza Zachary leading the way with five. GSU took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-13 win.
Texas State rallied in Set 2 and evened the match at 1 with a 25-16 victory. Georgia State battled and tied the match at 12 after trailing early on. Zachary led the Panthers after two sets with a .538 hitting percentage and eight kills.
The Bobcats came out of intermission with the same intensity and jumped out to a 7-3 lead. Polhamus called her second timeout of the set when her team fell behind 13-7. GSU battled all the way back and took a 19-18 lead behind some stellar play from Bohannon, leading to a Texas State timeout. The Panthers held on to the lead and took the set 25-23 to go up 2-1 in the match.
After being knotted up at four to start Set 4, the Panthers rattled off four straight to take an 8-4 lead. The Bobcats stayed close, but the balanced Panther attack proved to be too much for the Bobcats. After narrowly leading 21-20, GSU closed out the match on a 4-2 run to win the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
Georgia State has the rest of the weekend off and will stay at home for an Oct. 24 meeting with UL Lafayette. That match is scheduled for 6 p.m.
