BOILING SPRINGS – Gardner-Webb jumped out to a two-set lead Friday night against Radford, but the Highlanders rallied to take a 3-2 win over the Runnin' Bulldogs in Paul Porter Arena.

The Runnin' Bulldogs (9-21, 3-10 Big South) honored its four seniors prior to Friday night's match – Devin Judge, Katie Loftin, Tyra Montour and Anna Pashkova.

GWU hit a strong .293 in the opening set, taking a 25-21 win over the Highlanders (13-13, 6-7 Big South). The Runnin' Bulldogs slowly built a 15-10 lead in the second set, but Radford rallied to trim that margin to 16-14 on a pair of Valarie Gonzalez service aces – forcing a GWU timeout.

The Highlanders would later tie the set at 17 apiece, before Gardner-Webb was able to create a small cushion and hold on for the 25-22 win.

Radford responded very well after the 10-minute break, rolling to a 10-3 lead early in the third set and cruising to a 25-16 win to seize momentum. The Highlanders improved their hitting percentage significantly in the third – raising it more than 150 percentage points after hitting just .088 in the previous set (.242).

Radford pulled away in the middle stages of the fourth set, taking a 15-7 lead on a Maddie Palmer kill to force a timeout. That cushion would be too large for Gardner-Webb to overcome, and Radford won the equalizer by a comfortable 25-15 score.

The fifth set was tight as expected, but Gardner-Webb could never push in front. Radford scored the final three points to take a 15-11 win and the match. Gonzalez hammered home the game winner from Haley Kleespies.

Gardner-Webb got 15 kills from Montour, 11 from Jene Lee and 10 from Kaelyn Dyson to pace the offense, which hit .124 for the match. Justin Bowers dished off 33 assists and Tinsley Fain added 11 helpers. Pashkova contributed 32 digs to lead that category for GWU.

Radford over came a slow start to hit .214 for the match – with a .290 effort in the fourth set and a .444 clip in the final set helping that number.

Palmer finished with 15 kills and nine digs to lead the way. Savanna Burton had 13 kills and 10 digs and Megan Short hit .333 en route to 14 kills and three total blocks. Short had just three errors in 33 attempts on the night.

Kleespies finished with 42 assists, 14 digs and a block assist.

Gardner-Webb will wrap up the regular season at home Saturday, hosting Liberty at 4:30 pm in Paul Porter Arena.