University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Radford
Holliday Set Career-High in Digs; Dogs Drop Close One at Radford
10.12.2007 | Women's Volleyball
Kelsey Benorden led three Bulldogs in double figures and Brooke Holliday had a career best 18 digs but it was not enough as Radford pulled out a 23-30, 30-26, 30-28, 37-35 victory over UNC Asheville on Friday night.
Benorden recorded her eighth-straight double-double with 18 kills and 11 digs. Lauren Ficker had 15 kills and hit .448 on the match. Alysha Greer added 11 kills and Ashley Wrightenberry had nine kills and seven blocks but the Bulldogs could not get the big points when they needed them and fell to 6-16 on the season and 0-5 in the Big South.
Radford (6-15, 2-4 Big South) placed five players in double figures. Maggie Wagner had 16 kills and 11 digs while Melinda Clelland had 13 kills, and Alexis Miller had 12 kills. Heidi Haubrick and Lindsey Poole added 11 and 10 kills respectively. The Highlanders also had four players with double-figure digs and had 10 team blocks. It was Radford's first win against UNC Asheville in 12 matches dating back to Nov. 16, 2001.
The Bulldogs began the match strong winning game one 30-23. Asheville had four of its 11 team blocks in the opening game. The Bulldogs took a 6-1 lead to start the match and never trailed in the game. Ficker, Benorden, and Greer each had three kills in the opener.
Radford began strong in game two scoring the first six points. Asheville rallied and took a 16-15 lead when the Highlanders took a time out. RU came out of the time out with an 8-2 run to take a 23-18 advantage. Asheville battled back once again and pulled to 24-25 but the Highlanders won five of the final seven points for the 30-26 win.
Asheville led in game three 10-5 and 20-15, but Radford fought back and tied the game at 25. Once again the Highlanders made a run at the end of the game an took a 30-28 victory.
Game four was a marathon. The Highlanders jumped out to a 15-10 lead and led 20-13 before Asheville scored five straight points to make things interesting. Tied at 27, Bridget Holliday had a service ace to put the Dogs up one. Asheville had game point at 29-28, but a service error allowed RU to tie the game and then get its first of six match points at 30-29. Benorden's kill tied the game at 30. Asheville fought off four more matches points before going up 35-34 on a kills by Ficker, but a ball handling error tied the game again. Radford finally converted on match point number six to win the game 37-35.
Asheville will take Saturday off before traveling to Liberty on Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. match.
