Category Archives: GW Women’s Volleyball

Raynell Cooper
Staff Contributor

At 10am on a Saturday morning, most students were asleep. The women’s volleyball team, though,  was more than awake for their early match, beating the New Hampshire Wildcats three sets to one. Senior outside hitter Lauren Whyte had 27 kills and sophomore Jamie Armstrong hit an impressive attack percentage of 58.8% as GW took a key win in their penultimate non-conference game.

Both teams came into this game off of straight-set losses in the Smith Center yesterday at the GW/Nike Invitational. GW suffered a tough loss to Princeton, losing the last two sets by just two points, while New Hampshire was defeated handily by the nationally 15th ranked BYU Cougars.

The first set saw eleven ties and four lead changes, with New Hampshire grabbing the set. They were led by freshman Tori Forrest’s five kills and benefitted from three service errors, including one late in the set by sophomore Landon Garvik.

The closeness of that first set carried into the second, which saw four ties early. However, GW went on a 13-4 run, with senior Lauren Whyte nabbing eight kills. The momentum continued for the Colonials, who saw some great plays along the net from Kelsey Newman and freshman Maggie Skjelbred. The Wildcats, whose hitting percentage was well below their season average, never led in a set after that. The third set saw GW get kills on 42.9% of their attacks as New Hampshire suffered from poor communication.

Head Coach Amanda Ault has mentioned how much she enjoys playing at home, and even with a sparse crowd for the 10AM start time, the players fed off the energy. Lauren Whyte’s 27 kills were delivered with a fiery energy and a speed that was difficult for the Wildcats to handle. The New Hampshire back line finished the game much weaker than they started the game. Redshirt freshman setter Jessica Lubic did a great job of ball handling, finishing with 50 assists and orchestrating things well for GW on their side of the net.

This is just their third win this season after what was a difficult out-of-conference schedule. They only won 10 sets in the 12 games prior to facing New Hampshire. Lauren Whyte’s performance in this game is very promising; this was her first game this season more than 20 kills.

The Colonials will be back in action tonight at 7PM when they take on the the Brigham Young University Cougars. Coverage starts at 6:55 with Nkwa Asonye and Mike Martenak on the call.

Jeff Pawling
Assistant Director, News and Social Media

Fresh off three straight losses last weekend at the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Invitational in College Park, Maryland, the Colonials seemed to be looking forward to returning home to the friendly confines of the Charles E. Smith Center, where Head Coach Amanda Ault had only lost once entering Friday night. Unfortunately for GW, the breaks simply did not go the Colonials way as they fell in straight sets to Princeton, Ivy League runner-up a year ago, in their opening match of the GW Nike Invitational.

Sophomore Landon Garvik led the way for the Colonials with 12 total attempts, including four kills and three attack errors. Senior Lauren Whyte also had herself a strong match with 10 total attempts, including three kills and two attack errors.

However, the breaks just did not go in GW’s favor as the Colonials lost the final two sets by two points apiece. The Colonials had a chance to serve for the 2^nd set but an errant serve into the net thwarted that opportunity and allowed Princeton to storm back and steal the back-and-forth game 26-24. In the 3^rd set, GW got off to a fast start, but then allowed the Tigers back into the set and ultimately fell 25-23.

Lydia Rudnick killed the Colonials all night with her stellar play. She led the Tigers with 11 total attempts, including six kills. Kendall Peterkin also had herself a strong evening on Tex Silverman Court adding eight total attempts, five of which were kills.

Looking ahead, this loss has to be a bit disheartening for Amanda Ault and her squad. Going into the match, the Colonials could always fall back on the fact that they play extremely well at home and could point to the fact that most of their matches up to this point had been played away from Foggy Bottom. Tonight, however, could be an omen for a team that now falls to a disappointing 2-10 on the season and faces a pair of formidable opponents tomorrow in New Hampshire and 15^th-ranked BYU. Amanda Ault is now faced with the prospect of showing us just how good of a coach she is by turning this season around. If she cannot, this could be a very long season for Colonial Volleyball on Foggy Bottom.

Colonial Volleyball will be back on the air right here on wrgwsports.com at 10 A.M. tomorrow when GW hosts New Hampshire in their 2nd of three matches as part of the GW Nike Invitational. GW will then be right back in action later at 7 P.M. when they face #15 BYU. That match can also be heard on wrgwsports.com.