University of Georgia
Missouri
Spencer Leads Georgia to 3-1 Win Over Mizzou
October 05, 2014 | Volleyball
Interview with Lizzy Stemke.
Oct. 5, 2014
ATHENS, Ga. - The Georgia volleyball team won its first Southeastern Conference match with a 3-1 (17-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20) victory over the Missouri Tigers on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014 at the Ramsey Center in Athens, Ga. With the win, Georgia moved to 9-6 on the year and 1-2 in SEC action. Mizzou falls to 11-7 overall and 2-2 in league play.
"It was great to see us get into some rhythm," said Head Coach Lizzy Stemke. "The team did a great job leaving the first set behind and playing one point at a time. We started out slow and really hesitant but as our offense picked up, the defensive effort and energy on the court led to great things happening. We've been looking for some light at the end of the tunnel in some really tough matches and it was great to see everything click together."
Megan Spencer had an outstanding match leading the Georgia offense with a career and match high 14 kills, hitting at a .579 efficiency. Tirah Le'au, Lauren Teknipp, and Desiree McCray all added eight kills each. Kaylee Kehoe picked up a double-double leading the team with 25 assists and 12 digs. McCray led the defensive effort at the net with four blocks.
After dropping the first set 25-17, Georgia came out on a mission the second set as the team took an early 4-1 lead. A pair of kills by both middles, McCray and Jasmine Eatmon, kept the Georgia offense flowing as the Bulldogs continued its momentum at 8-4. A quick kill down the line by Teknipp kept the offensive fire burning as the Bulldogs pushed the lead to five at 10-5. The Tiger's defense could not answer back as a kill by Le'au forced Missouri to call a timeout at its biggest deficit of the set at 19-13. The two teams exchanged kills the rest of the set as an error by Missouri gave the Bulldogs their final set point 25-18.
The Bulldogs' strong offense rolled over into the third set as a great cross-court swing by Spencer gave Georgia a 6-3 lead. Errors from the Tigers kept the Bulldogs in the lead as a missed serve by Missouri put Cassidy Anderson back at the service line at 14-10. The Tigers struggled to find a defensive rhythm as back-to-back kills by Le'au widened the gap to seven with the Bulldogs still in the lead 19-12. Georgia's defense took a lead of its own as McCray shut down the net with a solo block to make the score 23-15. Missouri couldn't answer back defensively as an untouched tip by Amanda Dachs finalized the set win for the Bulldogs 25-17.
Georgia jumped ahead to a 5-1 lead in the fourth set due to four errors by the Tigers in just the first six points. Missouri went on a three-point run to tie the set 7-7. Georgia's offense answered back as a pair of kills by Spencer and a kill by Le'au gave the Bulldogs their own three-point run to take the lead at 11-8. A couple of errors by Georgia brought Missouri back within three at 14-11, but the offense got back on track with a kill from Kehoe and McCray gave the Bulldogs a 19-13 lead. Missouri went on a 5-0 run but a kill by Dachs gave Georgia match point 24-19. Kendall Kazor fed the ball to Spencer as she ripped the ball cross-court for the match win.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Friday, Oct. 10 as the team travels on its first road trip of SEC play to Gainesville, Fla., to first play the Florida Gators at 7 p.m., before heading to Fayetteville, Ark., to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks on Oct. 12 at 2:30 ET.
