Georgetown Takes Down Howard After Dropping First Set

Georgetown University’s volleyball team opened the 2017 season with a win against Howard in the first match of the D.C. Challenge on Friday evening at American University’s Bender Arena. The Hoyas cruised past Howard, 3-1 (18-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-19), to improve to 1-0 on the season as the Bison slipped to 0-1.

Junior Paige McKnight (Atlanta, Ga./Dunwoody) opened the season with a double-double as she registered 38 assists and 11 digs while also chipping in six kills and two service aces. Junior Symone Speech (Oak Park, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) led GU’s offense with 14 kills while also recording one block and one dig. Freshman Riley Wertzberger (Dallas, Texas/Richardson) added 10 kills, six digs, two assists and one block. Junior Kenzie Higareda (Woodbridge, Va./Forest Park) led the team with 21 digs and junior Alyssa Sinnette (Pearland, Texas/Dawson) contributed 11 of her own.

Georgetown hit at a .237 clip for the match, highlighted by Speech (.542) and McKnight’s (.462) efficient play.

While the Blue & Gray tallied 11 kills in the first set, erratic play from GU and a pair of 5-0 runs for the Bison led to the 25-18 HU advantage in the opening frame.

The second set saw the GU offense calm down and graduate student Aima Eichie (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon) notched three kills in five points to force a Bison timeout as the Hoyas led 8-6. Georgetown continued to pull away and a 6-0 run – behind two kills and two service aces – closed the second set, 25-13, for the Hoyas.

Georgetown opened the third set with an early 6-0 run to take the 8-2 lead. The Bison would crawl back into the set getting to within one point (11-10), but the Blue & Gray held on and took advantage of errant play from the Bison to claim the third frame, 25-20.

The fourth set went back and forth through a knotted score (10-10) before GU started to pull away. An HU attack error was sandwiched between a Wertzberger kill and a kill apiece from McKnight and Speech to give the Hoyas a 22-15 lead. Speech and McKnight would both add one more kill each in the set before an Eichie kill closed the frame, 25-19.

Howard hit .188 for the match and Khaila Donaldson led the way for the Bison with 20 kills (.224).

Georgetown returns to action on Saturday as it closes out the D.C. Challenge against Santa Clara and American. First serve against the Broncos is set for noon while the finale against the Eagles will start at 5 p.m.