versus 
This match is from Kansas' home invitational, which has sort of a weird structure. Four teams (Kansas, Georgia, Notre Dame, and North Dakota State) play a full round-robin over three days. But teams will play twice on one day and once on another, while not playing at all on the other day. Kansas already played North Dakota State earlier in the day today, sweeping them, and they don't actually play Notre Dame until Sunday. They don't play at all tomorrow — I'm guessing the crowds will be sorta low for tomorrow's matches.
Georgia on the other hand will play both Notre Dame and North Dakota State tomorrow, meaning their business is concluded before the invitational itself actually ends. Tend to wonder if they'll stick around for all-tournament honours.
So it's an odd schedule. Not sure I've seen an event the like. What it means for right now is this is Kansas' second match of the day, while it's Georgia's first. That could possibly have a deleterious effect on a team who have already had to shoulder something of a workload this season — of their 10 matches prior to today, 8 went at least four sets.
The match started out tit-for-that, an even exchange of the first few points. Kansas' big star Caroline Jarmoc gave Georgia their second point with a bit too emphatic swing landing long, but she redeemed herself shortly thereafter. The Jayhawks scored the first service point when Inutiraha Le'au swung into the net, to make it 5-3. Georgia setter Kaylee Kehoe went right back to her on the next point, but the ball was blocked back to her. The next Georgia volley went to Lauren Teknipp, who hit long. While the webcast was showing a replay, another Georgia hitting error put the Jayhawks up four. Sara McClinton found the floor on the next rally to prompt the Bulldogs' first timeout at 8-3.
The Bulldogs finally sided Jarmoc off the service line, with a kill from the middle attack by Jasmine Eatmon. The next point on serve went to the Bulldogs, playing some good team defence which led to a kill for Stacey Smith off the right side block and out. That made it 9-6, and the rally on that score was quite long, ending with a left side double block for the Jayhawks. 10-7 was another long rally, again going to the Jayhawks with a kill from the middle for freshman MB Tayler Soucie. You usually don't see quicks to the middle after anything but a perfect pass just off service or maybe the serving team's first return, but there it was at the end of a long rally. Kansas extended their lead to five for the first time with a four-hits call against the Bulldogs. McClinton hit off the block for the kill, deftly avoiding the brunt of Georgia's tallest tree Smith, to make it 15-9 Jayhawks and prompt the Bulldogs' second timeout.
The Jayhawks ran a nifty play coming out of the timeout, with Jarmoc getting the kill off Erin McNorton's quick set to the right side, kind of a hybrid between a classic quick and the slide play. Just as quickly, they made it a nine-point advantage at 18-9 when Georgia had trouble with Cassie Wait's serves, getting called for ball handling faults on both. The lead made it to ten at 19-9 when Georgia libero Allison Summers made a nice dig on the ball, but it flew straight over the net as an overpass into Jarmoc's waiting hands. The Bulldogs got their sideout on 19-10, and went on a little run towards the end of the set to close to within six, but once again left-side hitter McClinton powered through the block to keep them from coming any closer. Kansas then added a couple on serve themselves, and Jarmoc sealed the deal for a 25-17 final.
The Bulldogs took the advantage to start the second set, claiming four of the first five points. On 4-1, the Bulldogs played some incredible 'pinball' defence, but couldn't turn it into offence, with Jarmoc and Chelsea Albers putting up the double block to get the sideout. The Bulldogs maintained their three-point advantage for a while. They had a chance to come a point closer on a very long 7-5 rally, but Brittany Northcutt eventually terminated for Georgia's sideout. Le'au got the kill following a very good bump set from the libero Summers to put Georgia ahead by four for the first time.
Kansas closed to within a point a little later at 10-9, following a Le'au hitting error and a perfect service ace from libero Brianne Riley. They then came even at 10-all after a tremendously long rally, where I'm pretty sure all 12 women on the floor touched the ball at some point. It was McNorton who terminated, catching the Bulldogs off guard with a sneaky little dump. After an even exchange of sideouts from 10-all to 13-all, the Jayhawks took their first lead of the set with a solo block from Soucie. More sideouts followed, to the media timeout at 15-14. The first charged timeout was pretty soon after, when Albers gave Kansas their first two-point lead of the set at 17-15.
Smith put all of her 6-foot-4 might behind her shot on the 17-15 rally, to give Georgia a first-ball sideout. Then on the next rally, her intimidating presence likely caused the little breakdown on the Jayhawk side of the net, as they failed to legally return the serve. Georgia took the lead back at 18-17 on a kill for Elena Perri. Then Albers was blocked, to make it 19-17, and Kansas took their first charged timeout.
Kansas quickly came even, getting their sideout and a block by Albers and Soucie to make it 19-all. Smith got the Bulldogs their sideout to get them to 20 first. Another block against Albers made it 21-19 Georgia. Back-to-back kills from Tiana Dockery, who, as John Mayer would appreciate, plays a lot bigger than her 5-foot-10 frame, meant the Bulldogs could not inch any closer to closing out the set. A little later, she added a kill off the block to put the Jayhawks up 23-22. Georgia called their last timeout there to cool off the hot hand. But where extras had looked likely just moments before, the Jayhawks got rid of any such notion. Closing off the set on a 7-2 run, Kansas went up two to nil by a 25-23 final.
Georgia were first out of the gates in set 3 much like they had been in set 2, taking three of the first four, but Kansas equalised much quicker. They took the lead at 4-3 as McNorton slammed down an overpass. Georgia also overpassed on their reception at 4-3, but this time Smith was there to deny McNorton's efforts. Undeterred, the Jayhawks rattled off four straight, McClinton's big smash from the left side taking us to a Georgia timeout at 8-4.
The Bulldogs responded with a nice little run of their own, drawing back within two on 10-8 and then even at 11-all. The fans taunted Eatmon on serve a little (all in good fun, don't get me wrong), counting down at her as she bounced the ball prior to serve. There is a time limit for serve, but it's a solid eight seconds, which count up a lot slower than the rowdy KU fans would have liked.
The chain snapped a little there, as Kansas went back up four pretty quickly, some Georgia miscues getting them there. Then Dockery powered through the block to make it 16-11, and another Jayhawk kill made it 17-11 as what was once a back-and-forth set quickly became a laugher. Georgia called their second timeout there, down six, but the run continued with a hitting error into the net to make it 18-11. Kansas added yet another to get to 19-11before Teknipp got the sideout from the middle attack. Kansas mostly just kept feeding Tiana Dockery, and she misfired on a couple to bring Georgia within six, but the outcome was never really in doubt.
After an odd stoppage of play on the 23-17 rally, apparently an inadvertent whistle (which led to a replay), Kansas reached match point on 24-17. They easily converted on serve to win.
Kansas d. Georgia (25-17, 25-23, 25-18)
Don't forget, Kansas had a tournament seed last year. It raised a few eyebrows, but I don't think anyone thought it was a horrendous reach. So this is a good team we're talking about here, and they did what good teams do — win easily against lesser competition. It may not seem entirely fair to call Georgia that, considering this loss drops them to a not-at-all-terrible 8-2 record for the season, but the way these preseason invitationals usually work is that anyone who's anyone will emerge from them with a solidly winning record (unless you kamikaze schedule like Illinois). Georgia's wins have come against the likes of Lipscomb, Furman, Louisiana-Lafayette, and North Florida, and nothing at all against any of those schools, but an SEC team really shouldn't have much trouble with any of them.
Dockery and McClinton led all scorers for the Jayhawks, with 14 kills apiece. It seemed something of a quiet match for Caroline Jarmoc, but she turned in a fine hitting line too, going 8/0/17 for a .471 efficiency. Kansas hit .368 as a team for the match to .198 for Georgia, and outdid them at the net and service line, too. Smith and Lauren Teknipp, who mostly got most of those boring old sideouts I didn't really describe, tied to lead Georgia with 10 kills apiece.
It's a capper to a good day for the Jayhawks, as they improve to 9-3. They've had a fairly strong non-conference schedule so far, with five matches against four 2012 NCAA tournament teams (they played a home-and-home with the Arkansas Razorbacks). They've gone 2-3 in those matches (splitting with Arkansas, as both teams won on the road). Sunday adds another such match, as rock-chalk-Jayhawk take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That match will be on the digital airwaves but sadly I won't be around for it. The Bulldogs, naturally, will also face Notre Dame, doing so tomorrow in the nightcap after their early match with North Dakota State.
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