WALTHAM, MA- The Georgian Court University volleyball squad concluded its annual trek to the Bentley University Invitational Saturday afternoon with a thrilling 3-2 win (19-25, 25-23, 16-25, 25-21, 15-13) over the host-Falcons, GCU's first taste of victory at the event since defeating UMass-Lowell back on 9/12/2009.
The Lions (4-6) opened the invite Friday evening with a competitive 3-1 loss (20-25, 26-24, 21-25, 18-25) to Stonehill College of the Northeast-10.
Tatiana Villariny-Rodriguez and
Amy Berry paced the GCU offense with 14 and 13 kills, respectively, which topped all players.
Francheska Cedres contributed a game-high 17 digs while
Jaslene Lopez tied the Skyhawks'
Emily Iverson with 42 assists.
Georgian Court faced California University of Pennsylvania to commence Saturday's schedule, falling to the Vulcans, 3-0 (17-25, 21-25, 26-28).
Maria Antimisiaris and
Anabelle Barinas each collected eight kills to lead the team. Cedres controlled nine digs while Lopez distributed 26 assists in the defeat.
The Lions rallied to pull out a five-set victory over Bentley University to hand the Falcons their second loss of the day in their own six-team invitational tournament.
Bentley took a 7-3 lead in the decisive fifth set against the Lions, using a 5-0 run that included two kills from All-Tournament selection and senior
Grace Conner (Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos HS) and an ace by sophomore
Kelsey Buckner (San Marino, Calif./San Marino HS).
The Falcons were still up four at 9-5, but then Georgian Court ran off six in a row to claim the lead and never trailed again. Bentley tied the set at 13-all on a Buckner kill, but the final two points went on the visitor's side of the scoreboard. An attack error made it 14-13 and a kill by Antimisiaris ended the day.
Georgian Court, which improved to 4-6 despite hitting only .070, received 12 kills and 14 digs from sophomore Villariny-Rodriguez. Jhoan Agosto provided 10 kills. Gabriela Barrios-Hernandez, who earned selection to the All-Tournament Team, topped the team with 16 digs.
GCU returns home Wednesday evening to host Wilmington University (10-4) in a key CACC contest. Start time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
