ATLANTA – College of Charleston silenced the Georgia Tech faithful in a 3-0 sweep of the ACC squad on its home court, winning the Georgia Tech Invitational title on Sunday afternoon.

Charleston (3-0) never trailed in the match (25-22, 25-19, 25-15) as the Cougars held Georgia Tech (2-1) to a .120 hitting percentage, while siding out at a clip of 68 percent.

The win marked CofC's first-ever sweep of an ACC opponent and the fifth program win on an ACC home court. The Cougars have won their last two matches against ACC competition dating back to last year's NCAA Tournament win over Miami (Fla.). 

Junior Sloane White earned Tournament MVP honors after tallying 30 kills in three matches for a .291 hitting percentage. Darcy Dorton and Cara Howley were both named to the All-Tournament team.

Dorton led the Cougars with 11 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, while also making six digs. White picked up nine kills and two blocks. Senior Emily Neideffer led the team with six blocks, just one away from her career high. Andi Zbojniewicz tallied a team-high seven digs, while Cara Howley landed three service aces.

“Our passing did a great job of keeping us in system throughout the match,” head coach Jason Kepner said. “When we do that and keep a balanced attack from pin to pin, we are difficult to beat. We also did a good job on defense and served well to put them on their heels. It was a great way to start the season, and we hope that our fans come out to support us with a big home week.”  

The Yellow Jackets' Ivona Kolak slapped a team-high 10 kills and Chanell Clark-Bibbs had seven kills and three blocks.

Charleston hit a sparkling .484 team hitting percentage in the second set and took advantage of numerous Tech errors in the hitting and service game to pull out the sweep. GT committed 10 service errors and 23 hitting errors.

College of Charleston jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first set after an ace and three Yellow Jacket errors. The Cougars continued to find points by siding out and using GT errors against them, but Georgia Tech began climbing back with strong net defense. Neither team could find an effective offense as they each finished with a .000 hitting percentage in the first, GT committing 11 errors and the Cougars committing eight. The Jackets tied the score at 19, but then quickly committed two errors. White tallied a big kill and then Neideffer added a block to give the Cougars set point. CofC celebrated a set win as GT's Zoey Morton served out of bounds to give the Cougars a 25-22 set win.

The second set played out similarly to the first with the Cougars jumping out early yet again. However, Tech's net defense did not contain CofC's attackers. The Cougars hit .484 with 17 kills and just two errors. The Yellow Jackets pulled to within 15-13, but CofC ran away again with two kills from White and a block and overpass kill from Neideffer. Koehler punished GT with a one-time kill on a bad pass and Dorton put the set away with a dominant kill from the outside to give CofC a 25-19 victory. Dorton finished with six kills on seven swings in the second set.

Charleston went on a 6-1 run to open a 10-5 lead in the third set. The Jackets rallied to within three points at 11-8, but CofC screamed through another 6-0 run to open up the set at 17-8. Three errors by Georgia Tech in the final four points salted away the Cougar victory at 25-15.

College of Charleston will have a quick turnaround before opening the home season on Tuesday night against Charleston Southern. First serve will be at 7 p.m. in the TD Arena.