LAKEWOOD, NJ (Sept. 13, 2025) - Georgian Court Volleyball hosted a tri-match Saturday afternoon welcoming Lincoln (PA) and Pace to town. Things started off great with a 3-0 sweep of Lincoln, but GCU fell by that same score to Pace, going 1-1 on the day and move to 2-4 on the season.

Game 1 - Georgian Court 3, Lincoln 0 (25-11, 25-7, 25-23)
How it Happened
• Georgian Court dominated play, especially in the first two sets.
• GCU doubled up Lincoln in points, 55-25, kills, 44-19 and assists, 40-18.
• They had a huge advantage on the serve as GCU landed seven more aces. 
• GCU hit .302 for the match and held Lincoln under .100 at .045.

Set 1
• Lincoln took very early leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but once GCU went up 3-2, they led the rest of the way.
• Georgian Court scored five straight to go up 6-2 and that started a 15-1 GCU run.
• Amber Gallo was on the serve for nine straight GCU and scored three service aces.
• Lincoln never closed the gap and GCU easily won set one, 25-11.
Set 2
• As easy as things were in set one, set two may have been even better for Georgian Court.
• GCU scored the first 14 points in the set.
• Credit to Iciar Zayas successfully getting all of those serves over the net. She scored two of those 14 points on aces.
• Georigan Court was up 22-2 and even though Lincoln scored five of the final eight points, it was nowhere near enough to make the set close and GCU went up 2-0.
Set 3
• Lincoln does deserve credit for not giving up and really made Georgian Court work for the sweep.
• The third set saw 13 ties and five lead changes. There were only 15 total ties and six lead changes over the whole match.
• The set was either tied or it was a one point lead until Iciar Zayas connected on consecutive service aces for a 10-7 GCU lead.
• After Lincoln retied at 12, Georgian Court again scored three straight getting two kills from Ava Churnesky and it looked like GCU might start to pull ahead.
• Lincoln refused to retire easily and trailing two, scored three straight of their own, taking a 21-20 lead.
• Kills from Churnesky and Genesis Simanca, plus a Lincoln ball-handling error tied the frame at 23 and Lincoln hit consecutive attack errors to complete the sweep for Georgian Court, 25-23.

Georgian Court Stat Leaders
• Ava Churnesky had a game-high 15 kills with 10 digs for a double-double.
• Emma Gildea hit .615 with eight kills on 13 attacks with no errors.
• Genesis Simanca landed 10 kills and added eight digs.
• Carmen Rivera scooped 20 digs.
• Iciar Zayas passed out 33 assists and scored five service aces.

For Lincoln
• Elise Carter led Lincoln with eight kills. She also had eight digs.
• Ashley Fru had a double-double with 13 assists and 10 digs.
• Donavin Morris picked up a team-best 14 digs.

Game 2 - Pace 3, Georgian Court 0 (25-19, 25-17, 26-24)
How it Happened
• This was a fairly even match for the most part.
• Georgian Court really hurt themselves committing 10 service errors and Pace was a +10 on points off the serve.
• The Setters hit .216 with 41 kills to 17 attack errors while Georgian Court was at .146. They hit just 16 errors, but landed 34 kills, a little more than 11 kills per set.
• Defensively, Pace had the edge blocking, 7-4 and on digs, 56-46.
• This match featured nine ties and five lead changes. There were three tie scored in all three sets. 

Set 1
• Pace jumped ahead early, but then the Lions roared back.
• GCU scored 10 straight points to turn a 5-2 deficit, into a 12-5 lead. This happened again with Gallo serving and she contributed an ace while Churnesky scored three kills.
• The Setters slowly chipped away at the Lion lead and down three, 18-15, made their run.
• Pace scored seven straight, getting ahead 22-18 and finished the set on a 10-1 run to claim victory in the opening set, 25-19.
Set 2
• The second set was again close at the outset, but a 5-1 Pace run turned a one-point game into a five-point Setter lead.
• Georgian Court tried to get back, making it a four-point game on a couple of occasions, but the Setters finished strong again.
• Pace scored six of the final eight points and took a 2-0 match lead, winning set two 25-17.
• Pace hit .323 for the set, their best of the match.
Set 3
• The third set was a highly entertaining battle. Pace once again took an early lead, 5-2.
• Emily Hauptvogel landed a kill to get GCU to within two, 7-5.
• After consecutive Pace kills gave the Setters a five-point lead, 12-7, the next 18 points all went back-and-forth with no team scoring two straight.
• GCU finally ended that stretch with a Hauptvogel kill and block from Zayas and Kyla Davis. 
• Pace answered with two straight of their own to go back up by five, but the Lions rattled off five four straight, the last two on kills from Genesis Simanca to get back to within one, 22-21.
• Due to the back-and-forth action from earlier in the set, Pace was out of subs and had to finish the game with who was on the floor.
• They got to set point, 24-21, but another Simanca kill, a Setter attack errors and a Jenna Heiser service ace brought GCU all the way back even at 24.
• The Lion rally ran out of gas from there though as a kill and a service ace finished off Georgian Court 25-23.

Lion Stat Leaders
• Genesis Simanca landed 12 kills with nine digs.
• Kyla Davis chipped in seven kills and three blocks.
• Iciar Zayas dished out 29 assists with seven digs.
• Carmen Rivera had a team-high 15 digs.

For the Setters
• Kadence Ackmann led the match with 13 kills. She also had 12 digs for a double-double.
• Alice Bender scooped a game-high 18 digs.
• Keelah Chambliss added 10 kills, hitting .412.
• Aralyn Saultys and Camila Rodriguez each picked up 15 assists.

News and Notes
• Georgian Court is now a perfect 7-0 against Lincoln and have won via sweep in all seven matches.
• GCU has played six matches this season and all six have been over after three sets. The last time GCU went this deep into the season without playing more than three sets was in 2010. In the NCAA era, GCU has never started a season with seven straight three-set matches.

Up Next
• Conference season starts up for Georgian Court next week as they host Wilmington Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 6 pm for their CACC opener.