Georgia State volleyball splits conference matches over weekend

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

The Georgia State volleyball team went on the road this past weekend for two Sun Belt Conference contests.

The Panthers (3-9, 1-2) swept UL Monroe 3-0 on Friday. Georgia State won 25-16, 26-24, and 25-16 to snap a five-match losing streak. The Panthers have now won all four of the lifetime matches between the two squads.

Junior Kitan Ajanaku hit .692 with 9 kills to lead the Panthers on offense. As a team, Georgia State hit .295 to ULM’s .161.

“All week, we’ve been working on managing the game and managing our side of the net. We did a much better job of that tonight and it showed,” coach Sally Polhamus said. “We were tied 24-24 in the second set, but the team persevered and pulled out the win. That’s a big step forward. We were happy with the way we came out strong in the third set as well.”

Sophomore Kristina Stinson had 9 kills, tied for best on the team while junior Natalia Nieto’s 25 assists led all players.

Junior Eliza Zachary had another strong performance as the middle blocker had two blocks to go with eight kills and a .333 hitting percentage.

Georgia State dropped its match to South Alabama by the score of 3-0 on Sunday. USA won 25-18, 25-14, and 25-18 to sweep the Panthers. Junior Deidra Bohannon led GSU with 15 kills.

“Give all the credit to South Alabama. They controlled their side of the court and made it difficult for us to execute our game plan on offense,” Polhamus said. “Deidra [Bohannon] and Eliza [Zachary] both played well for us today, but we still aren’t executing like we want to as a team.”

Bohannon and Zachary led the Panther offense with 15 and 10 kills, respectively. Both ended the match with a .333 hitting percentage. Nieto went over 300 assists on the season with 30 against the Jaguars. Nieto also led the team in digs with 12.