BOILING SPRINGS – Fresh off a straight-set sweep on Friday night, Gardner-Webb fell to High Point on Saturday afternoon, 3-0, in Big South Conference action inside Paul Porter Arena.
 
The Panthers (14-8) won with set scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-20, in order, to improve to 7-1 in league play. The Runnin' Bulldogs move to 5-15 overall and 3-5 in the Big South, tied for fifth in the conference standings with both Radford and USC Upstate, both of whom GWU picked up wins over in their first respective meetings.
 
"It was a tough battle today," said head coach Eric Plunkett. "That's a good High Point team that stressed our defense with every attacker. I'm proud of the competitive spirit we had throughout the match, and this one gave us a lot of information to add to practice this week to prepare for next weekend's tough matches on the road against Campbell and Charleston Southern."
 
Gardner-Webb was led by a strong outing from McKenna Timmerman, who posted a team-best 15 kills on .344 hitting. The Crystal Lake, Illinois native finished one kill shy of tying a career-high set two matches ago at Presbyterian as the freshman continues to come on strong as the season wears on.
 
Kylee Garrison added nine kills, 11 digs and one block for the Runnin' Bulldogs, while Delaney McCullough registered a .583 clip with seven kills on just 12 attacks to go along with a block of her own. Mikayla Logan also finished with six kills.
 
Morgan Hornaday once again paced GWU in assists with 28, while fellow freshman Sophia Kotsovolos recorded a team-leading 15 digs, followed by nine from Sophia Bolden and seven from Kayla Hawkins.
 
As a team, the 'Dawgs hit .211 on the afternoon with 40 kills, three service aces, one block, 38 assists and 50 digs. High Point countered with a .308 clip and 44 kills, 10 aces and seven blocks.
 
Gardner-Webb will return to the road next weekend for consecutive road matches, beginning Friday, October 21 at Campbell. Opening serve in Buies Creek is set for 6 p.m.