Volleyball Hangs on in Wild Five-Set Victory over Gardner-Webb

Saturday, October 10

Radford, Va.

2:00 PM

Radford University

9-10,3-2Big South

Gardner-Webb

11-8,2-3Big South

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Gardner-Webb	23	28	21	25	8	2
Radford	25	26	25	18	15	3

Photo by: Matthew Maldonado

Volleyball Hangs on in Wild Five-Set Victory over Gardner-Webb

10/10/2026 5:16:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

RADFORD, Va. – In a wild match that teetered between dominant moments from both squads, it was the Highlanders that finished on top Saturday afternoon for a 3-2 victory on Dig Pink day.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Aubrey Hatch continued her hot streak to start conference play with another 17 kills today, a single-game career high for the junior. She is now averaging just over 2.5 kills per set through five conference matches.
Mia Jannazzo bolstered the defensive end in a big way finishing with 24 digs including a handful of big stops in the fifth set.
Only appearing in the final three sets, Addison Cunnagin provided some much-needed run creators late with nine kills.
Taryn Roberts eclipsed 10 kills in a third straight match with 14. She is averaging a strong 2.85 kills per set through conference play so far.
Lea Gage's 48 assists led the squad while Alyssa Cadavid also tallied 17. In the match, Highlanders would hit over 40% off their sets.
The five-set affair was Radford's seventh this season, they now own a 4-3 record when going the distance.

THE BREAKDOWN
In the opening set Radford looked strong and would work through their own miscues to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Roberts and Hatch fueled the offense early with eight of the team's 15 kills. In the early goings of the set, it was a back and forth affair until Radford gained a 10-6 edge behind a slew of attack errors by Gardner-Webb.

From there, Radford held a decent edge as Hatch and Miller paced the team ahead with kills. The set tied back up at 14-14 and Radford briefly fell behind 19-17 before Roberts rattled off a pair of kills to vault the team back ahead 22-21. Tied at 23-23, Radford won the set at the serve as the Runnin' Bulldogs served up an error and Maja Bochenek served up an ace for the 25-23 set win.

Radford kept rolling in set two and held a lead late into it, but a big Gardner-Webb run at the end upended what looked to be an incoming commanding 2-0 lead. It was a team effort offensively as nobody tallied more than four kills with six different Highlanders recording two or more overall.

Kills from Roberts, Hatch, and new substitutions Olivia Ryno and Riley Greene had Radford ahead early 7-5. Thin margins continued to be the theme throughout as Radford wouldn't build a convincing lead until 18-14. The lead would hold all the way to a 24-20 set point, but a 4-0 run by Gardner-Webb suddenly threw the set into a tiebreaker. Radford initially paced ahead looking to salvage the set, but a 3-0 run by Gardner-Webb finished things off in their favor 28-26.

Radford bounced back well in set two as the team was in yet another back and forth affair. Again, no one player would lead the pack by a wide margin offensively as the kills came from all over. Radford hit .435 as a team and played sharp to take advantage of Gardner-Webb's six service errors after only committing one in the opening two sets.

After trading points all the way up to the media break, Radford got a big run behind kills from Cunnagin and Roberts to go up 21-15. Gardner-Webb once again refused to go away quietly with a 4-0 run to tighten the set, but this time Radford responded as Miller tallied a kill and ace paired with a kill from Greene late to hold on for a 25-21 third set win.

The fourth set wound up being Radford's most lopsided on the losing end of the evening, before returning the favor in set five. Misfires on the offensive end with seven attack errors played culprit as Gardner-Webb committed just one for a major .406 to .103 attacking edge. The Highlanders were tied late at 16-16 despite the miscues, but Gardner-Webb finished the set on a 9-2 run to force the tiebreaker set five.

Having already won a five-set affair in conference play this season, Gardner-Webb was no pushover but the Highlanders found a way and then some looking dominant throughout the entire final set. Radford jumped ahead 4-0 right away as Cunnagin served up an ace, Hatch a kill and two attack errors from the opponent forced a timeout.

Out of that timeout, Radford kept rolling to a 7-2 lead and never looked back. Roberts, Cunnagin and Hatch combined for all nine kills by Radford in the set as the team rolled to a 15-8 final and a 3-2 victory on the day. The win put the Highlanders at 3-2 in conference play this season, with their only two losses to the top two squads in the standings and one of just three teams with three or more wins so far.

UP NEXT
Radford goes back on the road for another pair of Big South matches next week. Action begins on Friday night at Presbyterian for a 6:00 p.m. start on ESPN+.

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