There’s a saying in life that goes, “the one that got away…”

Most times, it refers to an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, but for the Georgia volleyball team, it refers to the Duke Blue Devils.

The Bulldogs had the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champions on the ropes Sunday with a 2-0 set lead, but dropped the final three sets to lose the match 3-2. That “one” that got away was clear to head coach Joel McCartney.

“Well, you know, I certainly was proud of the way our team performed over the course of the weekend,” he said. “But, if I’m going to be really honest with you, the sting of losing that match to Duke is still with me. I’m pretty sure it’s probably still with all of us. Hopefully we can avenge that.”

The Bulldogs are upset about the loss to a very good Duke team on Duke’s home-court, but they know that, for the future, having a tough match like that may be the thing that builds confidence.

“As much as that was a really disappointing loss, I think the value of learning some things out of it is going to, in the long run, be greater than the single match itself,” McCartney said. “(Will it fire us up?) I believe so.”

Georgia’s (5-2) first chance to apply first-aid to that sting comes tonight when they travel to Texas to face Texas-San Antonio (1-6) at 8 p.m.

This marks the fourth match of a season-long nine-match road trip for the Bulldogs, who will compete in three matches at the Texas Invitational this weekend.

McCartney knows that he must also put a game plan in place for the weekend, but that his team can’t lose its focus on UTSA.

It’s not like football where they have a week to look over this week’s opponent to get to next week’s opponent, he said.