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Home Of The RadFord Highlanders RadFord Highlanders
Palmer
2
Grand Canyon GCU 3-1
3
Winner Radford RAD 4-0
Grand Canyon GCU
3-1
2
Final
3
Radford RAD
4-0
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Grand Canyon GCU 21 25 23 25 10 (2)
Radford RAD 25 19 25 12 15 (3)
3
Winner Radford RAD 5-0
0
Eastern Kentucky EKU 2-4
Winner
Radford RAD
5-0
3
Final
0
Eastern Kentucky EKU
2-4
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Radford RAD 25 25 25 (3)
Eastern Kentucky EKU 18 14 16 (0)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

HIGHLANDERS SWEEP DAY ONE OF CACTUS CLASSIC



TUCSON, Ariz. – The Radford volleyball team began the Cactus Classic sweeping the competition, with a 3-2 opening win over Grand Canyon and a 3-0 win against Eastern Kentucky. Maddie Palmer totaled two double-doubles on the day with a combined 33 kills and 28 digs.
 
MATCH 1 INFORMATION
Score: Radford 3, Grand Canyon 2 (25-21, 19-25, 25-23, 12-25, 15-10)
Records: Highlanders (4-0) | Antelopes (3-1)
Location: Tucson, Ariz. (McKale Center)
 
The Highlanders went to their first fifth set match of the season and came out on top. Radford hit .391 in the final set and 11 of its 15 points were off kills. The set opened with the Highlanders taking seven of the first 10 points, which forced Grand Canyon (3-1) to take a timeout. Following the timeout, Radford outscored the Antelopes 5-2 and took a 12-5 lead. Grand Canyon battled back but a Valerie Gonzalez kill clinched the set, 15-10 and the match, 3-2.
 
The first match of the Cactus Classic opened with a back-and-forth first set but after Radford fell behind 17-14, two Grand Canyon errors and a Gonzalez kill tied the set at 17. Three straight points by the Antelopes gave them a 20-17 advantage but another Gonzalez kill began an 8-1 run that closed the first set 25-21 in favor of the Highlanders.
 
Grand Canyon took advantage of 10 Radford attack errors and had 14 kills in the second set to make it even at one set apiece.
 
Radford fell behind 14-9 in the third set but got back on track with three straight points thanks to kills from Sydney Tekstra and Maddie Palmer and an Antelope error. Teagan DeFalco, who led GCU with 20 kills, made it a 15-12 set with a kill. Radford swarmed back with an 8-3 run taking a 20-18 lead. Each team scored five points but the Highlanders scored their fifth point last with a clinching kill by Gonzalez for the 25-23 set victory to go up 2-1 in the match.
 
The match was forced to a fifth set after GCU won the fourth set, 25-12.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
•  Maddie Palmer led all players with a season-high 22 kills. It was the 13th time in her career she tallied more than 20 kills in a match.
•  Palmer tallied 16 digs on the defensive end, giving her back-to-back double-doubles.
•  Valerie Gonzalez contributed with double-digit kills for the fourth match in a row. The 10 kills was second most of any Highlander.
•  Haley Kleespies earned a season-high 45 assists and also collected two service aces.
•  Alyssa Carruth led the team with 17 digs and Kaylor Nash contributed 15 of her own.
•  The Highlanders had one more kill than the Antelopes as they totaled 58 in the match.
•  Radford had 12 total blocks and was led by Maci Keaton, who had six total blocks.
 
MATCH 2 INFORMATION
Score: Radford 3, Eastern Kentucky 0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-16)
Records: Highlanders (5-0) | Colonels (2-4)
Location: Tucson, Ariz. (McKale Center)

Radford (5-0) took the lead from the start in the first set but Eastern Kentucky battled back and tied the set at 12. An Amaya Rousseau kill, sandwiched between two Stephanie Neast kills, gave the Highlanders a three-point lead. Radford ended it on a 10-6 run and a Lauren Kolenik attack error sealed the first set, 25-18.
 
The Highlanders jumped to an 11-10 lead in the second set, when two attack errors and two Palmer kills forced the Colonels to call a timeout with the set score, 15-10. EKU scored the first point out of the timeout and the Highlanders scored the next five taking a 20-11 lead. The 5-0 run caused EKU to call its second timeout. The Colonels scored three more before the set ended but the 25th point came from a Celina Sanks attack error.
 
Eastern Kentucky scored the first point of the third set and jumped to a 5-2 lead. Radford then scored four straight taking a 6-5 lead. Each team would tie it up once more but with the set tied at seven an EKU service error sparked a 4-0 run. A kill and a Highlander attack error cut the deficit to two for EKU. That was the final point the Colonels scored for the next eight points.
 
Radford escalated to a monster 8-0 run that included four kills, two service aces and two EKU errors. The run gave the Highlanders a 19-9 lead and was too much for the Colonels to handle as Radford won the second match of the day with a 25-16 third set win.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
•  Stephanie Neast and Maddie Palmer led the way with 11 kills each.
•  The 11 kills for Neast is a career-high and she hit .579, which is also a career-best with 10 or more kills.
•  Palmer added 12 digs to her stat line that gave her a third consecutive double-double.
•  Kaylor Nash recorded 17 digs, the most by the senior in a three-set match.
•  Led by Haley Kleespies with two, the Highlanders totaled six service aces against EKU.
•  Kleespies also added 27 assists and six digs.
•  Amaya Rousseau and Valerie Gonzalez contributed 15 combined kills as Gonzalez totaled eight and Rousseau added seven.
•  Defensively, Radford held the Colonels to a .043 hitting percentage and only 28 kills.

QUOTABLE
"We showed some fight against a really solid Grand Canyon team and that made me very proud of our effort. In the second match we won the pass serve game, which is always key for any match." ~ Marci Jenkins
 
UP NEXT
Radford concludes play at the Cactus Classic facing host Arizona. First serve is slated for 4 p.m. ET and can be seen online.

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