Gardner-Webb Volleyball Falls to PC 3-0 in Home Finale
November 03, 2012 | Volleyball
Boiling Springs, N.C. - The Gardner-Webb volleyball team struggled to get any offensive rhythm going, as the Presbyterian College Lady Blue Hose swept the Runnin' Bulldogs in straight sets 10-25, 12-25 and 13-25 on Saturday evening at Paul Porter Arena in Boiling Springs, N.C.
The loss drops GWU to 9-20 overall and 4-8 in the Big South, while PC improves to 12-16 overall and 9-4 in conference play with the win.
Gardner-Webb had seven different players record at least one kill in the match, led by junior Erin Anderson's team-high six kills. Libero Anna Pashkova posted 10 digs, while sophomore setter Heather Feldman tallied 18 assists and seven digs in the loss.
PC was led by Rachel Hall and Allison Brown, who posted 12 and 11 kills, respectively, while Presley Mabrey posted a match-high 12 digs in the win.
"We came out flat today and did not play well," Coach Leo Sayles committed. "I do give credit to Coach Stegall. She helped her team to bounce back from a tough loss last night and had them clicking. We had no answers for them."
Presbyterian posted seven service aces in the match and took advantage of 28 combined errors by the Runnin' Bulldogs.
GWU looked ready to bounce back from a tough 3-2 loss last night to Winthrop by taking an early 1-0 lead on a kill by Anderson to start the match. However, that would be the only lead that the home team would hold in the opening set, as the Lady Blue Hose answered with an 8-0 run to take an 8-1 lead on a Hall kill.
The Runnin' Bulldogs would cut the PC lead to six at 9-3 on a PC service error, yet would fail to get anything going offensively, as the Lady Blue Hose pushed its lead out to 19-6 on a kill by Mabrey.
PC finished the set out on a 6-4 run to pick up the 25-10 set one win on a kill by Andrea Barman.
Looking to regroup, the Runnin' Bulldogs tied the second set up at 1-1 on another Anderson kill, yet again struggled to put together a string of points, falling behind 11-4 to the Lady Blue Hose on another Hall kill.
Gardner-Webb cut the PC lead to four at 12-8 on another Anderson kill, yet had no way to stop the Lady Blue Hose hitters, as the visitors pushed its lead to double digits at 21-11 en route to the 25-12 set two victory.
The third set proved to be very similar to the first two frames, as PC took an early lead, this time 3-1 on a Mabrey service ace.
However, GWU refused to roll over and play dead, but rather put together its first run of points of the match to take a 6-5 lead by taking advantage of back-to-back PC errors.
Gardner-Webb would take the lead once more at 9-8 on another Lady Blue Hose error, only to see the visitors answer with three straight points to take the lead back at 10-9 on a Mary Trimpe kill.
After trading the next two points to put the score at 11-10 in favor of the Lady Blue Hose, PC went on a 6-0 run to pull out in front at 17-10 on a Brown kill.
Gardner-Webb had no answer, as the Runnin' Bulldogs passing and efficiency struggles continued, as PC ran out to a double digit lead on its way to a 25-13 third set win, to give the Lady Blue Hose the 3-0 match victory.
Gardner-Webb will return to action on Friday night, as the Runnin' Bulldogs will hit the road to take on Radford at 7 p.m. in Radford, Va. PC will wrap up its 2012 regular season slate with a home contest versus Winthrop at 7 p.m. on Friday night as well.
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| Box Score: Presbyterian 3, GWU 0 |
