WALTHAM, Ma. (Dec. 6, 2024) - Georgian Court Volleyball's incredible season came to an end Friday evening. The Lions played in just their second ever NCAA Regional semifinal game. GCU ran into a buzz saw though facing the No. 3 seeded American International Yellow Jackets, winners of 19 straight. The Yellow Jackets got on top early and rarely trailed in their three set win, taking the match by set scores of 25-17, 25-12, 25-15. Georgian Court's year ends at 22-10 with a CACC regular season and tournament championship.

How it Happened
• American International's offense would not be denied. They doubled-up the Lions in kills 42-21.
• AIC also hit .344 for the match while GCU hit just .045.
• The Yellow Jackets were the stronger team on the serve with six aces to the Lions two.
• Georgian Court put back one more block, 4-3 but AIC dug out 47 attacks to the Lions 31. 
1st Set
• American International took an early 2-0 lead, but the Lions responded with a 6-2 run and grabbed their first lead, 6-4.
• AIC retied at six and the team's traded points for a bit.
• The Yellow Jackets then scored four straight for a 13-9 and a GCU timeout.
• Georgian Court was able to get back to within three on a couple of occasions, but a 4-0 AIC run made it 21-14.
• After another GCU timeout, the Lions rallied to score three straight and cut the lead back down to four, but American International scored the final four points of the frame and took a 1-0 lead in the match.
2nd Set
• In the early going, American International scored five of the six points to take a 5-1 lead.
• The Yellow Jackets slowly put some distance on the Lions and after a GCU attack error made it 11-5 AIC, the Lions needed a timeout.
• Georgian Court was never able to get on track in the second and the Yellow Jackets took a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-12 win.
3rd Set
• The teams were trading points at the outset. The Lions took their first 2-point, 7-5 lead with a Chelsea Ross block.
• That lead quickly disappeared though with AIC scoring four straight to take the lead back, 11-9.
• The Lions called a timeout at 16-13 to try to halt a potential Yellow Jacket rally. That didn't do much to slow down AIC though who scored four straight out of the break to take their largest lead, 20-13, and force another GCU timeout.
• The Yellow Jackets scored nine straight to get to match point, and although the Lions got one back, AIC ended it on the next point, 25-15. 

Lion Stat Leaders
• Giorgia Cappelletti nearly had a double-double with eight kills and a team-best 12 digs.
• Nylene Mateo added eight kills and well with two blocks and three digs.
• Chelsea Ross landed two kills and put back three blocks. 
• Iciar Zayas led GCU with 11 assists.

For the Yellow Jackets
• Janelys Perez-Cortes finished with a game-high 10 kills and hit .474.
• Victoria Mendez added nine kills, eight digs and 14 assists.
• Alice Di Francesco passed out 21 assists.
• Aleksandra Lucic chipped in six kills while hitting .500. 

News and Notes
• The loss in the semifinal round matches the furthest Georgian Court has ever advanced in the NCAA East Region Tournament. They also made it this far in the 2008 season.
• The 22 wins are tied for the fifth-most in a season in the NCAA-era and the most since 2019. 
• Giorgia Cappelletti finished the year with 81 service aces, the second most ever by a Lion in a single-season. 
• Amiyah Woods moved to seventh all-time in career blocks.
• Chelsea Ross's three blocks gave her 131 this season, the third-most ever in a single-season by a Lion. She also finished the season hitting .359, the second-highest single-season hitting percentage in program history. 
• Nylene Mateo's incredible career comes to a close. The all-time leader in kills finished up with 1,417. She's also one of just three Lions to be in the career top-10 in kills, digs and service aces. 

Quoteable
Shana Rayside
Opening Statement
American International came out and dominated. We knew they were a strong team coming into the match. We knew that it would be a fight, so congratulations to them for playing an amazing game.

On the impact the senior class has had on the program
This group has led our team to so many accomplishments. Is cannot thank them enough for buying into me as their coach and buying into this program. They pushed each other to be the best that they could be. It's going to be hard letting them go. I'm so proud of them. 

On the defensive game plan against American International
Our blocking has always been an asset for us. Just like our serving has been. Today we couldn't put the pieces together. We struggled a bit defensively and that's why other things fell apart. I don't think that takes away from the amazing season these girls have had. 

On the challenges of having one day to prepare for an opponent at the regional
I think it's making sure that we're ready. We have little time to scout these teams. Especially a team like American International. We haven't played them all season so we aren't used to seeing them on the other side of the net. Yesterday was a lot of scouting, a lot of talking and then trying to flip the script. We don't want to change too much on our side because it was working [yesterday], but coming in and then making adjustments in-game. 

Dayna Diaz
On what she'll remember most from this season
It's been crazy. I brought a camera to take pictures. All season we've been saying we're going to push and make it far. I've been trying to take in every moment. It's been awesome. It's an honor to play with this group of girls. 

On what the biggest factor in the game
I think on some plays we were lacking the aggression and the grit like Martina was saying that we've had all season. We were trying to serve tough, but we fell short. I feel that we missed more than we should have. It wasn't all negative though. We were picking up balls that we normally don't pick up and bodies were hitting the floor. We were putting balls away. We fell short in some areas, yes, but we were also still doing well on the opposite side. 

Martina Croce
On her memories of her time at Georgian Court
I came in last year and we had a lot of work to do. Noone ever stepped back. Everyone was all in, all the time. That's why we had the success we had this year. It takes a lot of commitment and grit. YOu have to want to be in the gym 24/7 and wand to work. We were all on the same page. I love the atmosphere every time I stepped into the gym.