GWU's Comeback Falls Short, As Lady Bulldogs Fall to UNCA 3-1 on Tuesday Night
November 04, 2009 | Volleyball
Boiling Springs, N.C. - The Gardner-Webb volleyball team had its comeback fall short on Tuesday night, as the Lady Bulldogs fell to UNC Asheville 3-1 in Paul Porter Arena.
The loss drops Gardner-Webb to 11-17 overall and 3-8 in conference
play, while UNCA improves to 21-8 and 10-2 in the Big South on the
year.
In the opening set both teams came out of the gates on target, as
UNCA posted a .385 attack percentage, just slightly ahead of GWU's
.324 attack percentage, to hold off the Lady Bulldogs for the 25-23
set win.
Neither team could pull away from the other, as the set saw 10 ties
and three lead changes. However, it was the UNCA Bulldogs that was
ahead when it matter, scoring the last two points of the set on a
kill by Kelsey Benorden and a GWU attack error to take the 25-23
set win and a 1-0 match lead.
In the second set, the offense's cooled-off, yet the play did not
as the two teams played to an even score of 10-10.
UNCA then ran off three straight points to pull out to a 13-10 lead
and force a GWU timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Lady Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb got within
two points at 15-13 on a Molly Rhyne kill, yet it wasn't enough as
UNCA closed out the set on a 10-3 run to take set two 25-16 and a
decisive 2-0 match advantage.
A kill by GWU freshman Melissa Richie to open up the third set
showed that the Lady Bulldogs were not going to roll over and play
dead, battling until the end.
Yet it was UNCA who again used a scoring run, this time a 7-3 run
to take an 11-7 lead and force yet another GWU timeout.
This time out of the timeout, the Lady Bulldogs responded with five
straight kills to take a 12-11 lead.
After a UNCA kill which tied the score up at 12-12, GWU answered
with an 8-0 run capped off by a Laura Wilcox kill to take its
largest lead of the match at 20-12.
UNCA made a late run to cut the score to Lady Bulldog lead to three
at 24-21, yet a kill by sophomore Evan Moffitt put the set away
with GWU on top 25-21.
The fourth set started out well for the Lady Bulldogs, as GWU took
a 3-1 lead only to have UNCA scored three of the next four points
to take a 4-3 lead.
The two teams' then traded points' back-and-forth until
back-to-back UNCA kills and a GWU attack error pushed the Bulldogs
of UNCA out in front by three at 11-8.
Gardner-Webb cut the lead to one on five different occasions for
the remainder of the set, but couldn't get that one play to knot
the score up or even give them the lead, as UNCA held off the Lady
Bulldogs to take the 25-18 set win and 3-1 match victory.
Rhyne led the Lady Bulldogs with both a match-high and career-high
21 kills, while Wilcox added 14 kills of her own for the match.
Richie tallied 10 kills and 10 digs for the match, while Feagin
passed out a match-high 46 assists on the night.
Benorden led UNCA with 16 kills and 15 digs, while Lauren Fickler
and Cindi Miller recorded 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Libero
Raquel Miotto posted a match-high 16 digs, while setter Rachel
Guinane tallied 40 set assists on the night.
The Lady Bulldogs will return to action this weekend, as GWU will
take on High Point on Friday, November 6th at 7 p.m. in High Point,
N.C. Gardner-Webb will then turn around and travel to Lynchburg,
Va. where they will face off with the Liberty Lady Flames on
Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
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| Box Score: UNC Asheville 3, Gardner-Webb 1 |
