Radford Athletics Communications

Box Score

Gardner-Webb GWU 9-11, 1-5 BSC

Radford RAD 16-3, 7-0 BSC

Gardner-Webb GWU

9-11, 1-5 BSC

Final

Oct. 08, 2016

Radford RAD

16-3, 7-0 BSC

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	4	F
Gardner-Webb GWU	25	13	11	19	(1)
Radford RAD	20	25	25	25	(3)

Game Recap: Volleyball | 10/8/2016 6:59:00 PM

JACKSON NOW 2ND IN DIGS AS RADFORD WINS 7TH IN A ROW

Next Match:

at Charleston Southern

10/14/2016 | 7:00 PM

Next Match

Full Schedule

Oct. 14 (Fri) / 7:00 PM

at Charleston Southern

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MATCH INFORMATION

Score: Radford 3, Gardner-Webb 1 (20-25, 25-13, 25-11, 25-19)
Records: Radford (16-3, 7-0 Big South) | Gardner-Webb (9-11, 1-5 Big South)
Location: Dedmon Center | Radford, Va.

RADFORD, Va. – The Radford volleyball team stormed back from a first-set loss to take the next three over Gardner-Webb 25-13, 25-11 and 25-19 Saturday, remaining unbeaten in the Big South and extending its current winning streak to a season-high seven matches.

Senior Kelby Jackson took over second place alone in Radford rally-scoring history in career digs and did it in style, recording a season-best 25 in the match.

Coming into the match tied with Rachel Wiechecki, Jackson wasted little time collecting the one dig to move past the former standout, as she fended off a Taylor Lillard attack on the third serve of the match. The total of 25 against the Runnin' Bulldogs give her 1,486 for her career.

Gardner-Webb opened the match with a fast start, racing out to a 12-6 lead on eight Radford errors. Following a RU timeout, the Highlanders stormed back with a 4-1 run, highlighted by four kills from Mallory McKnight to cut the deficit to 13-10.

The Runnin' Bulldogs extended the lead to 17-10 as Kaelyn Dyson teamed up with Molly Johnston and Lillard for back-to-back blocks.

Radford would battle back as kills by Maddie Palmer and McKnight pull the Highlanders within 23-20, but were unable to inch closer, dropping the opening set 25-20. It marked only the fifth time this season that Radford had dropped the opening set.

In the second set, Radford and Gardner-Webb traded points early with neither squad gaining much of a lead. The Highlanders rattled off three straight points off kills by Palmer and a Haley Kleespies service to force the Runnin' Bulldogs to call a timeout, trailing 12-8.

After the timeout, Radford closed out the set on a 13-5 run, highlighted by two kills apiece from Valerie Gonzalez and McKnight for a dominating 25-13 win. The second set saw Palmer collect eight of Radford's 15 kills.

After a slow start to the match, things started to click in the second set, which carried over to the third set. Coming out of the break, Radford opened the set with five straight points.

The Highlanders continued their dominance forcing the Runnin' Bulldogs to use both of their timeouts. Following a Gonzalez kill and two Gardner-Webb attack errors, Radford held a 18-9 advantage as the Runnin' Bulldogs called their final timeout.

Kaylor Nash served up Radford's eighth ace of the match out of the timeout, while Amaya Rousseau and Palmer hammered two kills each to finish off a 25-11 third set win in dominating fashion.

The early part of the fourth set was tighter before used an 11-2 run to take a commanding 20-10 advantage. Palmer recorded the last six points of the spurt, including a pair of aces, along with two kills. Gardner-Webb didn't go away quietly, cutting the deficit to 21-18, but three Runnin' Bulldog errors pushed RU to match point and on the second opportunity Sydney Tekstra's kill clinched the win.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Kelby Jackson's digs were spread evenly throughout the match as she had eight in the first set, six in the second and fourth and five in the third. She is now 20 away from equaling the program record of 1,506 set by Katelyn Meeks.
The seven-match winning streak is Radford's longest since a 10-match run in 2014, while the 16-3 overall mark is one win shy of tying the 17-3 start during the 2000 season.
Maddie Palmer once again led the way, just missing another double-double by one dig for the second straight match. She totaled 18 kills, nine digs and three aces, while finishing with 21 points.
Kaylor Nash and Haley Kleespies added to Radford's strong backline defense, recording 13 and 12 digs, respectively as the Highlanders totaled 72 in the match.
Kleespies also dished out 42 assists, her fourth straight match with 40 or more and eighth of the season.
Mallory McKnight added 10 kills on 20 attacks, while hitting .400 in the match, while Sydney Tekstra added nine kills and Amaya Rousseau chipped in seven, while adding a team-high five blocks
The Highlanders are now 2-3 on the season when dropping the first set.
After hitting just .062 in the opening set, Radford came back to hit over .300 in each of the next two and finished the match at .206
RU's strong defense limited Gardner-Webb to .043 hitting overall, including under .000 in both the third and fourth sets.

QUOTABLE

"I liked the way our kids bounced back after the first set. We got ourselves together and played like we are capable of playing. We bounced back after playing sub-par for us the last four sets going back to (Friday) night. Our ultimate goal is to be in the hunt for a championship at the end of the year so we've got to continue to get better." ~ head coach Marci Jenkins

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