Spring Break
Volleyball welcomes Richt, defeats Alabama
BEN BUSSARD
Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Sports
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Coming off a Friday night win against Mississippi State, the Bulldogs (13-9, 4-7 SEC) managed to avenge the loss to Alabama (6-16, 4-8 SEC) by defeating the Crimson Tide in four sets.
Georgia had a special guest in attendance for the match as they welcomed head football coach Mark Richt to partake in Sunday afternoon's festivities.
"He's a special friend. He's invited me, from the day I stepped foot on this campus, into a friendship," head coach Joel McCartney said. "We both come from the same hometown, Omaha, Neb., and we've just got some ties there and that's kinda how it started but we've grown a friendship. He really wants to support not just our program but really all the programs. He understands the sport community and the Bulldog nation and if we can get it working in all sports it just is a reciprocal value for everybody else."
Richt helped get things started by serving the ceremonial first ball of the match even though it took more than one try to do so after his first attempt didn't clear the net.
After coming through on his second serve, Richt joined McCartney on the bench for the remainder of the match as he provided some extra encouragement for the Bulldogs.
The encouragement seemingly paid off immediately as Georgia jumped out to a 22-14 lead over the Crimson Tide before taking the first set by a final score of 25-20.
The Georgia defense was suffocating throughout the first set as it held Alabama to a team hitting percentage of just .073 and posted five team blocks.
Junior outside hitter Erika Clark led the Bulldogs with five kills as Georgia never trailed throughout the course of the opening set.
In the second set, the Bulldogs found themselves in a back-and-forth battle that yielded 17 tie scores and nine lead changes.
