Lady Bulldogs Stop Skid, Defeat USC Upstate 3-1 on Tuesday Night
October 21, 2009 | Volleyball
Boiling Springs, N.C. - With both teams sporting pink uniforms due to "Breast Cancer Awareness Night", the Lady Bulldogs bounced back from a first set loss to defeat the Spartans of USC Upstate 3-1 in non-conference volleyball action on Tuesday night.
After dropping the first set 25-18, the Lady Bulldogs responded by
edging the Spartans in set two, 25-23, and then pounced on USC
Upstate in set three and four winning 25-20 and 25-12,
respectively.
With the win the Lady Bulldogs move to 10-15 overall on the season,
doubling its win total of all of last year. The loss drops the
Spartans to 6-16 on the season.
In the first set, Gardner-Webb took a 6-3 lead on a Laura Wilcox
service ace and a Molly Rhyne kill and look poised to go an
offensive surge. However, the Spartans responded with four
straight points to take a 7-6 lead, a lead that the visitors would
not relinquish for the remainder of the set.
Gardner-Webb tied the score up at 8-8 on another Rhyne kill, but
never could get its offense on track, falling behind as much as
seven points at one time.
The Spartans put the set away on a kill by Mindy Quimby and a
service ace by Paige Weiland to take the first set 25-18.
Down 1-0, the young Lady Bulldogs did not shy away, running out to
a 4-0 lead highlighted by two Regina Feagin service aces. Yet like
in the first set, the Spartans hung around for most of the game,
before putting together a 6-0 run to take a 17-14 lead.
Gardner-Webb answered with three consecutive points of its own to
take an 18-17 lead on a Lauren Evans' service ace.
The two teams traded points over the next five possessions with USC
Upstate taking a 22-20 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs tied it up on back-to-back USC Upstate attack
errors, before a GWU service ace gave the lead back to Upstate at
23-22.
However, GWU finished the set out strong, scoring the final three
points of the set on three kills to take the 25-23 set win and knot
the match up at 1-1.
USC Upstate got on the board first in the third set and held on to
a slim 4-3 lead before the Lady Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run capped
off by back-to-back kills from sophomore Evan Moffitt to give GWU
an 8-4 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs would use two more offensive surges in the set to
pull out to an 18-13 lead and force a USC Upstate timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Spartans battled back to cut the
Gardner-Webb lead to two points on several occasions, yet the Lady
Bulldogs remained on top, again scoring the final three points to
take the 25-20 set win and a 2-1 match lead.
Like the second set, the fourth set started out the same way with
GWU running out to a 4-0 lead capped off by a Brett Wilson service
ace.
However, this time the Lady Bulldogs would not look back, using a
10-0 run midway through the set to take a huge 24-11 lead en route
to winning the set 25-12 and the match 3-1.
Wilcox led the offensive attack for GWU, posting a match-high 19
kills, while Moffitt added 13 kills of her own to go along with her
match-high 21 digs. Rhyne had 10 kills over the four-set match,
while fellow freshman Melissa Richie had 16 digs.
Outside hitter Kelsie Queen led the Spartans with 11 kills, while
Quimby totaled seven of her own. Libero Megan Healy had a team-high
14 digs, while both Emily Sanders and Morgan Bucciferro dished out
18 set assists apiece.
The Lady Bulldogs will return to conference play this Friday night,
as Gardner-Webb will host the Radford Highlanders on Friday,
October 23rd, at 7 p.m. in Paul Porter Arena on the campus of
Boiling Springs, N.C. The Lady Bulldogs defeated the Highlanders
3-1 back on September 26th in Radford, Va.
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| Box Score: Gardner-Webb 3, USC Upstate 1 |
