Lady Bulldogs Fall on the Road at Liberty 3-0 on Saturday Afternoon
November 07, 2009 | Volleyball
Lynchburg, Va. - The Gardner-Webb volleyball team played its second road match in as many days, as the Lady Bulldogs fell to the Liberty Lady Flames 3-0 in Lynchburg, Va. on Saturday afternoon.
The loss is the Lady Bulldogs four straight loss, as Gardner-Webb
falls to 11-19 overall and 3-10 in conference action.
Gardner-Webb got on the board first in the opening set, taking a 2-0 lead on back-to-back kills from sophomore Evan Moffitt and freshman Carolina Solano.
After the Lady Flames knotted the score up at 2-2, Gardner-Webb pulled out to a 10-6 lead on a Molly Rhyne kill, taking its biggest lead of the set.
However, Liberty battled back with a 5-0 run to take an 11-10 lead and force a GWU timeout.
Liberty continued its hot offense out of the timeout break, as the Lady Flames outscored the Lady Bulldogs 7-2 over the next nine possessions to run out to an 18-12 lead and force the Lady Bulldogs to call its second timeout of the set.
This time out of the timeout, the Lady Bulldogs responded a 5-2 run
highlighted by two service aces to cut the Liberty lead to three at
20-17 and force a Liberty timeout.
The Lady Bulldogs would score only one more point in the set, as
Liberty finished the set on a 5-1 run to take the opening frame at
25-18.
Down 1-0 in the match, senior middle blocker Jessica Clayton put
the Lady Bulldogs on top at 1-0 in the second set. However, again
Liberty had an early answer, taking a 3-2 lead on a GWU ball
handling error.
A Solano kill got the GWU offense back on track, as the Lady
Bulldogs outscored the Lady Flames 13-6 to take a 15-9 lead on
back-to-back kills by Clayton.
Liberty attempted to erase the GWU lead, however, a service ace
from Moffitt followed by a kill by Solano pushed the Lady Bulldogs
out in front by six at 19-13.
Yet Liberty refused to go away, as the Lady Flames stormed back to
cut the Gardner-Webb lead to one at 21-20 on a Loren Thomas kill,
forcing a GWU timeout.
Gardner-Webb scored the next two points by way of a Regina Feagin
kill and a Laura Wilcox service ace to take a 23-20 lead.
After a Liberty kill and a kill from Rhyne put the score at 24-21
in favor of the Lady Bulldogs, the Lady Flames went on a 3-0 fun to
knot the score up at 24-24.
The two teams then traded points to tie the score up at 26-26. Yet
it was the Lady Flames who put together back-to-back points on a
service ace and a GWU ball handling error to take the 28-26 set win
and a 2-0 match lead.
Clearly the momentum had shifted to the side of the Lady Flames, as
the home team ran out to an 11-1 lead to start off the third
set.
Gardner-Webb, who appeared to be completely out of sync in the
third set, never got it going in the third set, as the Lady Flames
held a double-digit lead for most of the set en route to taking the
third set 25-12.
Clayton's team-high eight kills led GWU, while fellow senior Brett
Wilson led the way with a team-high 12 digs.
For Liberty, Karyl Bacon posted a match-high 16 kills and 15 digs,
while Chelaine McCarty added nine kills and three-service aces over
the three set match.
The Lady Bulldogs return to action on Tuesday night, November 10th,
as GWU will hit the road to take on Presbyterian College at 7 p.m.
in Clinton, S.C.
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| Box Score - Liberty 3, Gardner-Webb 0 |
