WILLIAMSBURG, Va. --- Senior Tyra Montour (Kennesaw, Ga.) registered a match-high 16 kills, freshman Emma Milstead (Knoxville, Tenn.) posted a double-double in her collegiate debut, and head coach Leo Sayles picked up the 200th win of his career as Gardner-Webb rallied for a gritty five-set victory over William & Mary to open the 2015 season on Friday evening at the Tribe Invitational.
"I'm very proud of our team effort tonight," praised Sayles. "They played with great poise, and competed start to finish. This is a great way to start the 2015 season."
Gardner-Webb (1-0) won the match by scores of 25-17, 14-25, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-7, registering 53 kills and 97 digs to go along with 12 blocks on the night. The Runnin' Bulldogs held William & Mary (0-1) to a hitting percentage of just .106 in the contest, as the Tribe tallied 84 digs, 46 kills and nine blocks.
Montour led all hitters with 16 kills, while Milstead turned in an impressive collegiate debut with 11 kills, 14 digs and three blocks to record her first career double-double. Sophomore Sydney Marshall (Norcross, Ga.) added nine kills and four blocks of her own, as Kaelyn Dyson (Holly Springs, N.C.) and Jene Lee (San Dimas, Calif.) each recorded a match-high five blocks.
Justine Bowers (Dana Point, Calif.) posted a double-double with 16 digs and match-high 43 assists, while Anna Pashkova (Iowa City, Iowa) opened the season with a contest-best 28 digs. Katie Loftin (Ooltewah, Tenn.) and Kacy O'Connor (Southport, N.C.) chipped in 17 and 10 digs, respectively, as Bowers and Loftin both tallied two service aces.
Mallory Brickerd led the way for William & Mary with 2 kills and four blocks, while Michelle Heath and Sydney Biniak added nine and eight kills, respectively. Dessi Koleva paced the Tribe with 25 digs, while Sara Zumbach added 23 of her own. Katie Kemp (21) and Gabrielle Pe (19) combined for 40 assists, as Carolyn Albright chipped in four blocks.
Gardner-Webb came out firing in its first competitive set of the season, taking a 1-0 lead over William & Mary with a 25-17 victory in the first frame of the night. The Runnin' Bulldog offense was clicking in nearly every aspect in the set, as Gardner-Webb registered 17 kills and just two errors on 35 swings. Montour and Milstead combined for 11 kills in the frame, while Pashkova dug out seven Tribe attacks.
The Runnin' Bulldogs led by as many as nine in the set, stringing together an 11-5 run midway through the frame to take an 18-9 advantage following a Marshall smash. The Tribe fought back with a 6-4 spurt, closing the gap to 22-15 before Gardner-Webb finished out the set with a solo block by Dyson.
William & Mary answered in a big way in the second set, holding the Runnin' Bulldogs to just eight kills while totaling 14 kills and only one error in a 25-14 win. The teams battled throughout the frame, with Wiliam & Mary breaking an early 4-4 deadlock with a 9-4 spurt to claim a 13-8 advantage following a tandem block by Koleva and Brickerd.
The Tribe continued to dictate play over the next several minutes, pushing the lead to 19-9 on a smash by Heath. William & Mary finished off the set moments later, evening the match at 1-1 following a Heath kill.
The third set proved to be perhaps the most tightly contested of the night, with the middle stanza featuring 15 ties and four lead changes. William & Mary would take the set by a narrow 25-23 margin, with neither team leading by more than three points throughout the frame.
Trailing 19-16 midway through the frame, the Tribe strung together a clutch 7-3 run, capping the spurt with a smash by Biniak to take a 23-22 advantage. After a Milstead kill evened the score at 23-23, Brickerd finished off the set with a smash to give William & Mary a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Runnin' Bulldogs battled back in the fourth, jumping out to an early 6-3 lead before William & Mary responded with a 9-2 surge to a 12-8 advantage. The Tribe would keep their noses in front for the next several minutes until Gardner-Webb found an opening, and strung together an 11-6 run to take a 23-18 lead following a smash by Montour.
Gardner-Webb held on from there, forcing a deciding fifth set with a 25-21 fourth-frame victory – sealed by an emphatic kill by Marshall.
The Runnin' Bulldogs carried the momentum into the fifth, opening the frame with a 9-3 surge and never looking back, sealing the set and the match with a Montour smash and a Tribe miscue.
Gardner-Webb will close out the weekend with two matches on Saturday afternoon, taking on Norfolk State at 12:30 p.m. before capping the Tribe Invitational with a 4:30 p.m. clash against La Salle in Kaplan Arena.
