MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., – The GRU Augusta Jaguars, (16-4, 7-2) won a closely fought 3-2 Peach Belt Conference match over the Georgia College Bobcats (7-9, 2-7) on the road (23-25, 25-18, 28-26, 17-25, 15-10) Saturday afternoon in the Centennial Center.
Junior Kailla Baptiste willed GRU from behind, with a career-high 19 kills – eclipsing her recent career mark of 17 on Oct. 1 against Montevallo. She added seven digs, while senior Maggie Darling did a little bit of everything with 23 digs, 13 kills, six aces, and three assisted blocks.
The Jaguars blew an 8-2 lead in set one, as thirteen errors and six Georgia College blocks marked a set one loss. The Jaguars would fight back in set two winning 25-18 while posting a .333-team attack percentage.
Set three went back and forth and at one time the Jaguars held a 20-17 lead, but once again the Bobcats proved to be quite a match-up pushing the score to a tie and eventually a 26-25 lead.
However just like all season, the Jaguars found a way and rallied off three-straight points to take an exciting set three, 28-26. The Jaguars were unable to close it out in set four as twelve errors once again doomed the Jags for GC to take a 25-17 win and force a fifth and final set.
The Jaguars were clutch when they needed to, posting 11 kills and a .292 attack percentage in the fifth and final set, taking the set and the match, three games to two.
Darling had a stand out performance with 13 kills and six service aces. Darling currently leads the PBC in aces per set with 0.60 a match. Baptiste led the team with 19 kills and freshman Paige Elliott also had a solid game posting 11 kills, 3.5 blocks and a team leading .318-attack percentage. Katie Beresford added nine kills and two blocks and Kristen Koch had nine kills and one block for the Jaguars.
The Bobcats gave a solid effort on defense posting 15 total blocks as a team. Maggie Roper, Caroline Long, and Chandler Ewaldsen all had 10 kills, while Mollie Michel led the team with a .292 attack percentage. Bailey Freeman led the Bobcats with a team-high five blocks.
The Jags will stay on the road, and face Erskine on Tuesday, Oct. 14 in Due West, S.C. at 7:00 p.m. LIVE STATS and LIVE VIDEO.