ATLANTA – Sally Polhamus' first home win as head coach of Georgia State's volleyball team comes against the Panthers' in-state and conference rival, Georgia Southern. GSU won 3-1 on Wednesday in front of a record crowd.
“I'm so proud of our players with how hard they fought. They were just relentless on all sides of the ball. We really enjoyed this home crowd,” Polhamus said.
Georgia State's win was fueled by junior Deidra Bohannon's sixth double-double of the season. Bohannon's 22 kills on .300 hitting led all players and her 12 digs made for her third-straight double-double. Junior Natalia Nieto dished out 49 assists, her second highest total on the season, and 10 digs to record her first double-double of the year.
“We served very well and we passed well and that allowed our offense to run the game. Great job to our defense. They kept Georgia Southern to .087 [hitting]. That is by far the best we've done defensively against a team,” Polhamus said.
NOTING THE PANTHERS…
- Junior Gabby Serafin's 26 digs was a career-high and falls just 10 shy of the school record for a four-set match.
- Junior Brianna Jones, who transferred to Georgia State in the offseason, recorded seven kills for the Panthers to set a new high-mark for her GSU career.
- Georgia State's defense held the Eagles to .087 hitting. The Panthers used a season-high 76 digs and 6.5 team blocks to slow Georgia Southern's attack.
- The Panthers hold a 14-7 record all-time against the Eagles, but this win snapped a four-game losing streak for GSU in the series.
- Junior Kitan Ajanaku led the team with four blocks. She also had 10 kills, hitting the double-digit mark for just the second time this season.
- In the highest attended match dating back to 2000, the crowd of 447 provided the volleyball team with an extra boost.
Georgia State came out of the gates in the first set and set the tone for the match. After taking a 10-9 lead, the Panthers never turned back and took the set 25-18. GSU used a balanced attack in the first frame with four players getting three or more kills.
After a 25-23 loss in the second set, the Panthers got a boost from junior Eliza Zachary. With six blocks on .417 hitting in the third set, the middle blocker helped the team to a 25-18 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match. GSU never trailed in the third set.
Bohannon turned things up a notch in set four. The Panthers and Eagles were tied at six when Brianna Jones got a kill for GSU. The score would stay in favor of the Panthers from that point on with Bohannon leading the charge to the finish line. The junior recorded the final two kills of the match to finish the set with seven kills on a .700 average.
Georgia State (4-12, 2-5 SBC) hits the road this weekend for a pair of matches. The Panthers face Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark. On Friday at 8 p.m. ET before heading to Little Rock, Ark. to face UALR on Sunday at 1 p.m.
SOCIAL FLOW
