With a dominating performance from star outside hitter Julia Bergmann, Georgia Tech won its first-round match of the NCAA volleyball tournament over Lipscomb Wednesday and advanced to a second-round match with No. 3 seed Minnesota on Thursday.
Bergmann, the two-time first-team All-ACC selection, was at her peak Wednesday, recording a career-high 31 kills as the Yellow Jackets took care of Lipscomb in four sets in Omaha, Neb. She provided what Tech needed in its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009.
“I think that she really got in a good rhythm here and just stepped up,” Tech coach Michelle Collier said. “She was killing balls out of the back row, out of the front row. For us, like I said, we didn’t have to think too much. It’s, we’ve got to keep feeding the hot hand. She was feeling good. I know that as a player, when you’re feeling in the zone, it’s one of those fun days. You just kind of really feel confident and you just keep executing.”
Bergmann’s kill total ranks among the highest ever for a single match in Tech history. This season, only one ACC player had recorded more kills in a match than her 31. Lipscomb often seemed helpless to defend against Bergmann’s powerful spikes.
“It’s kind of a feeling that you can do whatever, and it’s going to work out,” Bergmann said. “So you can, I don’t know, swing with your left arm and it’s going to drop. Everything works, and I think you have to have confidence in those moments and know that you know how to do it. I think that’s the secret.”
Tech (14-4) won its first NCAA Tournament match since 2004 and 10th tournament match overall. Lipscomb, the ASUN Conference champion, was difficult for the Jackets to escape. The teams split the two first sets. In the critical third, Lipscomb (17-3) led 14-12 before the Jackets regained the lead with a 4-0 run, ultimately winning 25-21. In the fourth and final set, Tech led the entire way, but had to pull it out at the end, stretching a 20-18 lead to the final 25-19 margin, completed with a kill by Mariana Brambilla, an ace from Delaney Smith and a kill by Erin Moss.
In Minnesota, the Jackets will face one of the sport’s powerhouses. This is the Golden Gophers’ 21st NCAA appearance out of the past 22 seasons. They’ve reached six Final Fours.
Collier acknowledged that Minnesota is better than any competition Tech faced in the conference this season, including 11th-seeded Louisville, which roughed up the Jackets in a sweep on March 26.
“They’re No. 3 in the country, have a great coaching staff, crazy athletes,” Collier said. “But these are the matches that we want to be in and play, and this is the direction that our program wants to be going. So I think it’s going to be a fun match for us. We really have nothing to lose. Go out there and play a great volleyball team and really work hard to challenge them and then see what happens.”
The second-round match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EDT and will be streamed on ESPN3.
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