Volleyball regains form in second half

The volleyball team has finally established themselves in the ACC. The team started out conference play with an 0-6 start, but have won their last four games to improve their conference record to 7-8.

"An 0-6 start makes it really tough to win games," said Head Coach Bond Shymansky. "We knew that we would have to work twice as hard as everyone else just to get back to level. We have a lot of matches left in a short period of time and we really feel like we can make up a lot of ground."

The winning streak includes wins over then-undefeated Duke and Wake Forest at home. This past weekend, Tech went on the road to avenge early conference losses to Miami and Florida State.

The team defeated Miami on Friday night behind the play of Talisa Kellogg and Ulrike Stegemann, who had 20 and 19 kills respectively.

The Jackets held off a late Hurricane rally extending their winning streak to three matches. Miami took an early lead in the match with a 30-18 win in the first game, but the Jackets stormed back in the next two games to take a 2-1 lead overall.

The Hurricanes evened the fourth game and won 32-30 to even the match.

However, Tech would not be denied their sixth ACC win as Allie Niekamp and Kellogg had key kills to close out the fifth game 18-16 and give the Jackets their sixth conference win.

Junior outside hitter Lindsey Gray finished the match with her third consecutive double-double (16 kills and 10 digs).

Stegemann finished the match with a team best .424 hitting average and Niekamp continued her strong play as setter with a match-high 57 kills. Defensively, Abby Showers led all players with 14 digs.

The good fortune for Tech continued as they traveled to Florida State Sunday afternoon.

The Jackets were able to defeat the Seminoles in four games. Florida State won the first game 30-27 after the Seminoles went on an 11-2 run to end the game.

However, Tech cruised past Florida State taking the final three games by scores of 30-26, 30-25 and 30-26. Stegemann led the Jackets with a team-high .444 hitting percentage (10 kills) and had three blocks.

Callie Miller, Kellogg and Gray each had 13 kills in the match. Gray also had 10 digs for another double-double.

Allie Niekamp continued her strong play with 45 assists and five digs. Abby Showers led the game, again, with 16 digs. Tech servers recorded a season-high 16 aces in the game.

"We had a couple of hard fought road victories," Shymansky said. "The Florida State and Miami swing is always a hard one because of the level of competition."

The Jackets used the win to continue their season-best, four-game conference winning streak.

"We just played very well and our passing has gotten so much better," Stegemann said. "We let the team come back into the match [that we lost]. They were good wins that helped us extend our winning streak. After starting off the season rather poorly, we're playing great now."

The team will try to continue the streak this weekend on the road against North Carolina State and North Carolina. The Wolfpack are currently 0-15 in the conference while the Tar Heels are 4-11.

Last year, Tech opened up conference play with an 9-2 record half way through the year before ending with an 3-8 record.

This year Tech started 3-8, but they have won the last four.