By JOSH KATZOWITZ
The Red & Black

ATLANTA – Perhaps the Georgia volleyball team should start playing all of its home matches here at the GSU Sports Arena.

Taking on a tough, upset-minded Georgia State team on Tuesday night, the Lady Bulldogs played impressive volleyball, sweeping the Panthers in front of a vocal – sometimes mean – crowd of about 150.

The Lady Bulldogs, who snapped GSU’s 11-match home winning streak, looked strong coming out of the gate building up a 9-2 lead in the first game before mercifully finishing the Panthers (23-7) off 15-3.

Coming into the match, the Lady Dogs (7-13) had struggled with their serve, committing 186 errors to just 98 aces. But both Rebecca Dady and Wendy Powell aced the Panthers to get Georgia off to a fast start.

The Panthers, however, showed some of the resiliency they used to beat Georgia Tech in September as they took an early 2-0 lead and made the Lady Dogs work hard for their points.

Although Georgia State acquired enough floor burns to fill a burn unit three times over with its diving and hustle, miscommunication plagued the Lady Panthers in the latter stages of the second frame as the Lady Dogs battled back to take a 15-9 win.

"We certainly played well in game one," Iams said. "But, (Georgia State) came on real strong in the second game. Our blocking was something we had to correct, and we were able to do that."

With the approximately five Georgia fans in attendance shouting for Panther blood, the Lady Dogs looked to continue their domination.

Beginning the third game, though, the Lady Panthers looked like they might throw a good post-Halloween scare into the Lady Dogs as they used good serving to build an early 8-4 lead.

Despite reverting back to its old serving patterns with 10 errors in games two and three, Georgia battled back to tie the game at 10-20.

An obviously tired Dady then finished devouring the Panthers by killing four critical balls at the tail-end of the Lady Dogs’ 16-14 victory.

"My feet were hurting," said Dady, who finished with 15 kills and eight digs, referring to the two times she sat out in the final game. "(At the end of third game), I was thinking that I had to give 100 percent to win the game. And we were able to come back and stay with it for the win."

Freshman outside hitter Stacy Buerger also looked good leading the team with 17 kills and 13 blocks, while junior setter Mindi Westfall assisted in 38 Georgia kills.

After the game, Iams expressed his happiness with the team’s play, minus, of course, the serving.

"They served a lot better than we did," Iams said. "I don’t mind the errors, but we didn’t generate much of anything with our serves."

Next, the Lady Dogs hope to use the confidence won on Tuesday when they host Kentucky this Friday and Tennessee on Sunday.