Volleyball defeats Georgia

Tech opened their 2006 season as the host school for the Regency Suites Midtown Invitational. Despite losing to Mississippi State in the first game of the tournament, Tech was able to bounce back to win the next three matches and take the tournament title.

Allie Niekamp won MVP honors after tallying 190 assists on the weekend for the Jackets. Senior Abby Showers and Junior Ulrike Stegemann joined Niekamp on the All-Tournament team. Niekamp also earned ACC player of the week honors.

"Our whole team played well this weekend, but it couldn't have happened without Allie's setting play," said Tech Head Coach Bond Shymansky on ramblinwreck.com. "She was smart, cunning, competitive and tough. After spraining her ankle on Friday night, it looked like she might not be able to continue, but she stuck in there and helped the team take down Georgia. Then, to get up on Saturday morning and do it all over again, and even better, was impressive."

Tech lost their season opener in a four-game match to Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had the advantage of already playing and beating three teams. The experience was evident as the Jackets, plagued by double digit service errors, quickly fell behind dropping the first two games of the match. The star of the game was Niekamp who registered the third triple-double in Tech volleyball history and the first at O'Keefe. She had 10 kills, 44 assists and 10 digs in the loss.

In the night cap on Friday Tech defeated Georgia in a five-game match. Tech won the first two games with relative ease, but struggled to close out the Bulldogs dropping the next two games. Tech was able to put UGA away in game five, thanks in large part to off the bench freshman Chrissy DeMichelis. DeMichelis came into game five and put away five crucial kills to slam the door shut on Georgia.

Tech swept Georgia State Saturday morning before capturing the tournament title in a five-game match against Northern Iowa.