Volleyball drops match to conference foe Clemson

Tech dropped a match against Clemson this past Tuesday.

The Jackets currently rank fourth in the conference through the end of the first half of the season. With a strong home court advantage for the next four matches, Tech is poised to climb up the ranks.

Tuesday's first game against the undefeated Clemson Tigers showed strong drives from both teams. As the Jackets were within game-point, the Tigers were able to catch up despite strong kills from Kaminskas and Kellogg. The Tigers stole away the tiebreaker in the first game through strong blocking.

"Clemson is a very good team and when you come out flat when you play, they will beat you and they proved that tonight," Kaminskas said.

The Jackets had supreme attack plays that seemed to put pressure on the opponent's defense. In fact, Kellogg and Chrissy DeMichelis had 15 kills apiece while Kaminskas and Callie Miller hit .400 throughout the night. Nevertheless, strong blocking skills were the game-winner in the heated contest as the Jackets were defeated in the home match.

"We came out in game one confidently and jumped on the team but just didn't quite close it out...Our outsides [Kellogg and DeMichelis] did very well tonight," Kaminskas said.

Last weekend, the Jackets proved to be a threat in the conference. Tech stole away the first two games away from nationally ranked Duke.

"We came out 2-0 on Duke and ended up losing the rest, but Duke is a very good team as well and it just shows that as a team we are improving. We need to get better," Kaminskas said.

The seniors took charge during the event. Ulrike Stegemann and Lindsey Gray provided powerful serves to pace the Jackets from a four-point deficit to a late lead in game two. Kaminskas came back to provide strong blocks and take away the tiebreaker point.

"We played together. Our passing was amazing. And if we're anchored by a good passing team, then you can pretty much do anything, so that was very important for us," Kaminskas said.

Tech was traveling towards another victory in the third game but had costly errors that led to Duke winning the game and the match in five games.

The Jackets played tremendously well against Wake Forest last weekend to finish a road trip. Four players, including the senior captain, hit for at least ten kills and digs apiece while the other two seniors and first-year Jordan McCullers hit at least ten digs apiece.

The Jackets were stopped by FSU in four games despite top-notch defensive blocks by Kaminskas and good attacks by Stegemann. On the other hand, Tech handed over a defeat to the Miami Hurricanes. Hitters DeMichelis and Stegemann stepped up the Tech offense through attack kills and blocks.

The Tech volleyball team will host the annual Dig for the Cure tournament to raise money to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. Tech hosts Maryland on Friday and Boston College on Saturday.

As in the past, Dig for the Cure weekend creates some of the buzz around campus. This weekend should bring significant publicity for breast cancer research through the tremendous efforts of the Tech volleyball squad. During last year's event, the Jackets fared extremely well against tough opponents.

"Any efforts that we can do to help to raise any money for that would be very incredible, and it means so much for us. We take it very personally and very seriously....We're really excited to go out there to play volleyball and do everything we can," Kaminskas said.