Georgetown Opens Second Half of Big East Play With Villanova

Press Release courtesy of Georgetown Athletics

Georgetown University’s volleyball team begins the second half of its BIG EAST schedule with a lone road match at travel partner Villanova on Saturday. The Hoyas look to put together another sweep over the Wildcats on their home court for the second-straight season.

First serve is set for 7 p.m. Live stats and video can be found online at www.GUHoyas.com.

Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) continues to lead the Hoyas with 3.50 kills per set and is hitting at a BIG EAST-best .393 clip while Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas/Dawson) adds 2.49 kps from the outside. The duo both recently eclipsed the 900 career kill mark and are on pace to become just the 15th and 16th Hoyas in program history to reach 1,000 kills. Paige McKnight (Atlanta, Ga./Dunwoody) averages 9.04 assists per set and recently moved into sole possession of fourth place on the career assists chart with 2,998.

Defensively, Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) anchors the back row with 3.85 digs per set while McKnight adds 2.43 a frame.

Villanova (13-7, 6-3 BIG EAST) has won six of its last seven conference matches after a pair of losses to open BIG EAST play. Mallory Potts and Allie Loitz lead the Wildcats with 3.29 and 3.28 kills per set, respectively, while three other VU players add at least two kills a frame. Emma Decker paces the offense with 10.31 assists per set and Regan Lough hauls in 3.69 digs a stanza.

Georgetown and Villanova already met once this season on the Hilltop with the Wildcats claiming a 3-0 victory on October 7. Speech led the Hoyas with nine kills and four blocks while Sinnette added seven kills and seven digs. McKnight tallied 21 assists to go with seven digs, three blocks and three service aces.  Higareda had a team-high nine digs for the Blue & Gray

Amanda Pedersen-Henry led Villanova with 14 kills and three blocks while Potts added eight kills and Loitz collected a match-best 11 digs.

Last year, Georgetown made a trip to the Main Line and left with a 3-0 victory. Speech led the way for the Hoyas with 14 kills, five blocks and two digs, Olivia King (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion) had 11 kills and Sinnette posted a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.

Following Saturday’s match, Georgetown continues its road trek with a pair of contests in the Midwest against Xavier and Butler on October 27 and 29, respectively.