JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Opening its anticipated 2021 campaign in the four-team Gamecock Classic, the Gardner-Webb women's volleyball team faced off against a strong Jacksonville State University squad on Friday afternoon, pushing the reigning Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions deep into the final two sets of new head coach
Eric Plunkett's career debut, before ultimately falling in straight sets inside Pete Mathews Coliseum, 3-0.
Kylee Garrison led Gardner-Webb with 12 points on eight kills and four service aces.
Madison Deslatte led all Runnin' Bulldogs with nine kills on .667 hitting, while
Audrey Gun added six kills of her own.
Lauryn Rocassin and
Tori Weatherley paced GWU in assists with 12 apiece.
Gardner-Webb (0-1) hit .124 as a team with 31 kills on 89 attacks, while tournament-host Jacksonville State (1-0) attacked at a .389 clip and countered with 38 kills on its home floor. The 'Dogs also combined for 29 assists and 16 digs, and edged the Gamecocks in service aces, 7-6.
After a slow start by GWU allowed Jacksonville State to claim the opening frame with relative ease, the Runnin' Bulldogs bounced back in a big way in set two led by a dominant stretch of play from Garrison. A senior outside hitter, Garrison helped erase an early 4-2 deficit by securing two kills and four consecutive aces on serve during a swift 8-0 run to propel the Red and Black to a six-point advantage.
Following a JSU timeout in attempt to halt the opposing momentum, Gardner-Webb continued to press as back-to-back kills from Deslatte and Gun boosted GWU's lead to eight, its largest of the afternoon. The Gamecocks slowly chipped away at its deficit from there, however, stringing together a pair of timely runs to even the frame at 19-19 before going on to win six of the next nine points to come from behind and steal set two, 25-22.
Despite trailing 2-0, the strong effort from the 'Dogs continued into set three as a pair of kills from Deslatte preceded a service ace from Rocassin to help GWU pull out to a 6-2 lead early on. Jacksonville State managed to rebound from there, tying the frame at 10-all before taking a lead on the next serve that it would refuse to relinquish.
Addie Halverson, Katie Montgomery and Lena Kindermann led all JSU players with seven kills apiece. Lexie Libs and Macie Garrison dished out 19 and 13 assists for the Gamecocks, respectively.
Gardner-Webb will return to competition tomorrow, August 28 for another two matches inside Pete Mathews Coliseum. Action is set to get underway at 11 a.m. ET as the Runnin' Bulldogs take on Middle Tennessee before rounding out the Gamecock Classic against Alabama State at 4 p.m.
While Saturday's neutral-site matches are not scheduled to be video streamed, GWU fans can still follow along with live stats with links found on the team's schedule page
here.
