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Palmer-20161120
Big South Sports Photos
3
Winner High Point HPU 23-9
1
Radford RAD 24-6
Winner
High Point HPU
23-9
3
Final
1
Radford RAD
24-6
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
High Point HPU 25 25 23 25 (3)
Radford RAD 22 20 25 22 (1)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

RADFORD FALLS SHORT IN TIGHT FOUR-SET BIG SOUTH FINAL



MATCH INFORMATION
  • Score: High Point 3, Radford 1 (25-22, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22)
  • Records: Radford (24-6) | High Point (23-9)
  • Big South Tournament Championship
  • Location: Vines Center | Lynchburg, Va.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Down 2-0 in a match for just the fourth time all season, the Radford volleyball team tried to battle its way back in Sunday's championship of the Big South Tournament, taking the third set to extend it. However, as it did to gain the advantage, High Point won the crucial points late in the fourth to take a 3-1 victory and the title.

In a fitting battle between the conference's top two teams in terms of overall record, the match featured 48 ties and 14 lead changes, with each set coming down to the wire.

The opener a seesaw affair featuring mini-runs by both teams. After High Point built an early 8-5 edge, Radford used a 7-2 spurt to take its first lead, going up 12-10 with four straight points on kills by Maddie Palmer, Haley Kleespies and Mallory McKnight. Trailing 15-12 at the media timeout, the Panthers scored six straight, with three of them coming off blocks to make it 18-15. The Highlanders came back to even the score at 21-21 with a 5-2 run, getting two kills by Palmer and one each by Amaya Rousseau and Valerie Gonzalez. However, the final spurt belonged to High Point as it scored the final three points, capped by their fourth block of the set.

The second set was even more tightly contested with 18 ties and neither team able to score more than two points in a row until the Panthers tallied the last six to earn the two-set lead. The decisive spurt started with back-to-back kills and included a pair of blocks and two other Radford errors.
High Point continued the momentum after the intermission, scoring the first three points of the third and still held an 11-8 edge before the Highlanders scored four out of five, getting two kills apiece from Palmer and Rousseau, to take a 13-12 lead. The teams went back and forth from there until it was 23-23. Radford got the late clutch points this time as Rousseau delivered another kill and Tekstra closed the set out with her 11th of the match. Palmer had seven kills in the set, while Tekstra had five and Rousseau four.

The fourth set followed a script similar to the first with the teams exchanging short bursts of momentum. Radford scored three straight with McKnight getting two kills to even the score at 10-10. High Point followed with three in a row of their own and Radford came back with another 3-0 run on two kills by Palmer and a block by Rousseau and Kleespies. The Panthers scored two in a row, with Palmer banging into the net post on the latter, injuring her ankle.

Gonzalez came back off the bench and put down on a kill on her first swing and a Kleespies tied it back up. High Point pushed back ahead 21-17, but the Highlanders again battled back with five out of six points with four different players contributing kills capped by the first of the season for Emma Wroblicky that tied it at 22-22. Once again, it was anybody's set, but as it did in the first, the Panthers earned the final three points to take the match on kills by three different players.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
  • Palmer and Haley Kleespies earned All-Tournament Team honors.
  • Palmer returned from the injury later in the fourth set and posted 22 kills and 12 digs for her 19th double-double of the season and 35th of her career. She finished with 495 kills for the season, the second-most for a Highlander in the rally-scoring era.
  • Kleespies dished out 56 assists and notched a team-high 16 digs for her second straight double-double and 11th of the year.
  • Tekstra added 14 kills, while McKnight chipped in nine and Rousseau and Stephanie Neast each had eight. As a team, the Highlanders actually held a 67-61 advantage in kills.
  • However, High Point had the higher hitting percentage throughout and was over .300 for most of the match before dropping a bit late. It finished at .279 with just 15 errors, the third-highest percentage by a Radford opponent on the season.
  • Radford compiled a .235 percentage and it was hurt by 25 attack errors. The Panthers contributed to many of those with 12 blocks, including 10 in the first two sets.
  • Kelby Jackson added 15 digs, while Kaylor Nash chipped in 12. Radford finished with a 77-76 edge in total digs.
  • Haley Barnes was named tournament MVP after recording 20 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, while Megan Kennedy had a match-high 24 digs.
  • The Panthers had six different players record at least two blocks led by six from Jordan Hefner.
  • It was the final match for Jackson and Wroblicky, but the Highlanders return everybody else, including five all-conference picks.
 
QUOTABLE
  • "Errors came back to really hurt us and they played a really error-free match and that was the difference. They were a good team and we weren't able to stop them offensively as much as we needed to. It's tough to be good over eight weeks and still do it in the tournament, but we've got to find a way to learn from it, get back to the same point and hope the outcome will be different. What Kelby and Emma brought in terms of intangibles and leadership… I've said before that good people affect programs better than good players and those two kids are good people so we are going to miss them. " ~ Radford head coach, Marci Jenkins
 
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