The 2017 UGA volleyball season came to an end Sunday afternoon following a three-set loss at Ole Miss (20-14) in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship tournament (21-25, 11-25, 19-25).

 

Georgia finishes the season with a 22-12 overall record. UGA made its first postseason appearance since 2013, earning an automatic bid to the NIVC. Georgia’s 10-8 Southeastern Conference record was good enough for fifth in the league. The season was the first under the direction of Tom Black.

“So much of what this team accomplished this season rests on the leadership and example of our seniors,” Black stated. “We’re excited to continue developing this program to see how good we can become. We’ll take a little time over the holidays and then get back to it in the gym.”

Offensively, Majesti Bass led the squad with 12 kills while hitting .545. Freshmen T’ara Ceasar and Rachel Ritchie recorded nine and seven kills, respectively. Ceasar added 12 digs to her performance.

Errors on the attack as well as at the service line plagued the Bulldogs in the match combining for 32 total points for the Rebels.

Georgia dropped its first set of the NIVC Tournament in the opening frame of Sunday’s match, 25-21. It took a while for the teams to lock in as both teams combined for 13 attack errors in the set. The last 11 points of the frame featured 11-straight kills from both teams with no errors, neither on the attack nor at the service line. The Bulldogs fell behind early and couldn’t string together a run as Ole Miss went on to take the 1-0 lead in the match.

The Bulldogs fell in set two 25-11 to fall behind by two sets in the match. The Rebels cruised to the victory in the set, as they owned 12 of the final 14 points to down the Dawgs. Bass contributed five kills in the set including three-straight earlier to pull within three points of Ole Miss.

Set three was the closest of the match as Georgia used a four-point run early to overtake the Rebels at 9-7. Ole Miss answered with six unanswered points to retake a lead and never looked back en route to a 25-19 set three win to secure a spot in the semifinals of the NIVC.

CLICK HERE for the Georgia-Ole Miss volleyball match box score.