University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Volleyball Plays Final Home Match Sunday
November 10, 2007 | Volleyball
When Georgia (17-10, 8-9 Southeastern Conference) and Arkansas (11-16, 5-12 SEC) meet on Sunday, the Bulldogs will be looking to improve to .500 in conference action this season. Having already surpassed combined overall and SEC win totals from the past two seasons, Georgia will be looking to tie the 2004 team’s marks of 18 overall wins and nine SEC wins. The 2004 squad advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ll be playing for a lot,” said first-year Georgia head coach Joel McCartney, who also will be looking for career-win number 300 in the match against Arkansas. “First of all, it gives us a chance to get back to .500 in the conference. It feels like if we can get hot and get a run here in our final three matches there’s something beyond that for us out there. We’ve certainly assessed that, and we are going to go out and play for that and leave it on the line.”
McCartney came to Georgia as the nation’s 15th-winningst coach with a then career heading coaching record of 282-100 from his tenures at Bellevue University and Winthrop University. After guiding Georgia to 17 wins in 2007, McCartney now stands at 299 career victories.
This past Wednesday, McCartney coached the Bulldogs their third-straight win, a 3-1 victory on the road over the Auburn Tigers. In that match, freshman middle hitter Valentina Gonzalez set career highs in kills (13), hitting percentage (.650), digs (eight) and assists (five). Additionally, Georgia received double-double efforts from junior outside hitter Maria Taylor, junior setter Mara Martin and freshman outside Erika Clark. Taylor led the Bulldogs with 20 kills and 26 digs, Martin provided 47 assists and 11 digs and Clark contributed 14 kills and 14 digs.
Arkansas took on Auburn on Friday night, also defeating the Tigers by a score of 3-1. Senior outside hitter Jessica Dorrell led the Lady Backs with 18 kills and 12 digs.
Earlier this season, Georgia and Arkansas squared off in Fayetteville on Oct. 5, with the Lady Backs winning that contest 3-2 (30-25, 30-28, 30-32, 28-30, 15-9). In that match, the Bulldogs were led by Taylor, who had 29 kills, and senior libero Renee Johnson, who provided 26 digs. Arkansas was paced by sophomore outside hitter/middle blocker Kristin Seaton and Dorrell. Seaton had 20 kills and 10 digs, while Dorrell had 17 kills and 17 digs.
“We’re playing at home for a our last home match of the season knowing that we went down 0-2 at their place and gave them a match in five,” McCartney said. “I feel like we didn’t play our best volleyball down in Fayetteville and that sort of started the tough grind part of our season, so we feel like we have plenty of motivation to make it work at home. It certainly feels good coming off of our third-straight win.”
In the all-time series between the schools, Georgia leads 29-9, but Arkansas has won the last four meetings. The Bulldogs last win over the Lady Backs came on Oct. 15, 2004.
With Sunday’s contest being the final home match of the season for the Bulldogs, the Georgia senior class of defensive specialist/libero Brooke Burlingame, Johnson, outside hitter Alexis Morgan and setter Chelsea Young will be honored following the match.
Additionally, the first 200 fans to the contest will receive free ice cream courtesy of Red Baron.
Live stats of the match with Arkansas will be available on Georgiadogs.com, and GXtra subscribers can log on for live audio of the match. GXtra is the official premium online service of the Georgia Bulldogs.
Following Sunday’s match, the Bulldogs will conclude the 2007 regular season on the road with matches against LSU Friday, Nov. 16, and Ole Miss Sunday, Nov. 18.
