GWU Volleyball Falls at Home in Straight Sets to Coastal Carolina
October 20, 2012 | Volleyball
Boiling Springs, N.C. - In a key midseason Big South Conference match up, the Runnin' Bulldogs struggled to find its consistency after the first set and ultimately fell in straight sets to Coastal Carolina, 3-0, on Friday night in Paul Porter Arena in Boiling Springs, N.C.
GWU suffered a 27-29 loss in what was a tight first set throughout and then dropped back-to-back sets at 20-25 and 16-25 to fall in straight sets to the Chanticleers.
With the loss, GWU falls to 8-16 overall and 3-4 in the Big South, while Coastal Carolina improves to 8-11 overall and 6-2 in conference play with the win.
Junior right side hitter Emily Holte led the GWU offense with six kills on the night, posting a .385 attack percentage overall, while four different players in Amanda Murphy, Tyler Cockrell, Carolina Solano and Molly Rhyne all had five kills apiece. Sophomore setter Heather Feldman tallied 28 set assists, while libero Anna Pashkova recorded a match-high 18 digs in the loss.
The Chanticleers were led by the duo of Gabriella Horvath and Eszter Nagy, who posted 13 and 10 kills, respectively, while setter Lauren Alejo dished out 32 set assists and recorded nine digs in the win.
"Tonight was a tough match versus a very, very good team. I give Coastal a lot of credit. They were a very settled team, very poised. When we had control in the first game they were able to settle down and put themselves back in it and that was a great fight," Coach Leo Sayles commented. "Sadly for us I think that got in our heads a little bit, to lose that first game at home and we didn't seem to settle down after that. We have got to be more poised tomorrow. I think the girls will bounce back. We had a good talk afterwards and I think they are looking ahead. We are still in a good position, we just have to find ourselves and stick with our gameplan tomorrow."
Both teams came out with a sense of purpose in the opening set, as the first set saw 11 ties and three lead changes overall.
Gardner-Webb opened up the frame with a kill by Murphy to take a 2-0 lead out of the gates and then pushed its lead to six at 10-4 on back-to-back Chanticleer attack errors.
However, after an Erin Anderson kill pushed the Runnin' Bulldogs in front at 11-5, the Chanticleers' went on a 6-1 run, capped off by a kill by Nagy, to cut the Gardner-Webb lead to one at 12-11 and force a GWU timeout.
Out of the timeout, GWU got another kill from Murphy, yet couldn't stop Coastal Carolina's momentum, as the visitors took its first lead of the set at 15-14 on an Alejo kill.
Coastal Carolina would push its lead out to two on two different occasions, however, the Runnin' Bulldogs refused to go away and battled back to tie the score up at 21-21 on a kill by Rhyne.
The back-and-forth play continued, as GWU then took advantage of two straight Chanticleer attack errors to take the lead at 23-21, only to have Coastal Carolina answer with back-to-back kills by Horvath and Nagy to tie the score up at 23-23.
A Gardner-Webb kill by Cockrell would give the home team set point at 24-23, yet on the ensuing serve the Runnin' Bulldogs' put the ball into the net to knot the score up once more at 24-24.
Neither team could put together back-to-back points to win the set putting the score at 27-27, where Coastal Carolina picked up a kill from Kindra Bailey and then a service ace from Bailey to escape with a 29-27 first set victory.
The first set loss appeared to take the air out of the Runnin' Bulldogs, as GWU fell behind 8-3 to start the second set on back-to-back kills from Bailey.
GWU would chip away at the lead ever so slightly, as a kill by Murphy put the Runnin' Bulldogs down three at 15-12.
Later on in the set, two straight kills by Cockrell and a ball handling error by the Chanticleers put the home team in striking distance, as GWU trailed the Chanticleers by three once more, this time at 19-16, and forced a Coastal Carolina timeout.
Out of the timeout, after a GWU service error gave the side out to Coastal Carolina, the Chants made back-to-back attack errors to allow the Runnin' Bulldogs within two at 20-18.
However, that would be as close as the Runnin' Bulldogs would get, as the Chanticleers took advantage of three straight errors by Gardner-Webb at the end of the frame to pick up a 25-20 set victory and take a 2-0 match lead.
GWU took a 1-0 set lead in the third set on an Anderson kill and kept the game close over several early rallies until a kill by Bailey, an ace by Alejo and a kill by Megan Laffin pushed the Chanticleers in front by two at 8-6.
Coastal Carolina would not relinquish the lead from that point on, as Gardner-Webb cut the lead to one at 10-9 on a Holte kill and once more at 11-10 on a Chanticleer service error.
With the score at 13-11 in favor of Coastal Carolina, the Runnin' Bulldogs' hit a scoring lull, as the Chanticleers used an 8-4 run to pull out in front by six at 21-15.
Gardner-Webb would pick up a kill by freshman Tyra Montour late in the set, yet would be outscored 4-1 over the final five rallies as Coastal Carolina held on for the 25-16 set win and the 3-0 match victory.
Coastal Carolina hit .252 overall as a team for the match and posted 11 total team blocks compared to the Runnin' Bulldogs' six team blocks.
The loss is GWU's fifth straight to the Chanticleers in volleyball action, as the Runnin' Bulldogs last defeated Coastal Carolina back in 2009.
Gardner-Webb will remain at home to host Charleston Southern tomorrow at 2 p.m., while Coastal Carolina will travel to Asheville, N.C. to face off with UNC Asheville at 1 p.m.
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| Box Score: Coastal 3, GWU 0 |
