Sept. 29, 2004

Final Stats

Boiling Springs, NC - The Western Carolina women's volleyball team took the first two games from Gardner-Webb and held on to knock off the Bulldogs in five, 3-2 Wednesday night in non-conference action.

With the win the Catamounts, improve to 5-6 on the season, having won five out of their last six matches. Gardner-Webb falls to 4-12.

Both teams locked horns early and often, setting a trend for the night as four of the five games were decided by two points and three took extra points to settle.

After both squads traded leads and momentum in the first set, Western Carolina opened up the only four-point edge at 26-22 and looked to have control. GWU fought back to knot the score at 27-27, only to see the Catamounts earn two of the next three points to claim the 29-28 lead.

Gardner-Webb refused to go away, forcing ties at 32 and 33-all before back-to-back kills from Melissa Parana and Stefanie Peters gave WCU the nail-biting 35-33 win.

Gardner-Webb came out slow in the second game and Western capitalized by racing out to a 17-8 lead. The Lady Bulldogs answered with a 14-6 rally of their own, capped off by consecutive kills from Audra Harrison, Lindsey Sutherland and two from Ashley Pridgeon, cutting the deficit to one point at 23-22, but WCU managed to hold off the Gardner-Webb charge and take the 30-28 win.

The Lady Bulldogs built an early 4-0 cushion in the third set and maintained the margin throughout the game, finally extending it to 27-20 before Western Carolina rallied back to tie GWU at 29-29. An attack error by the Catamounts gave GWU a match point at 30-29 and a Melanie Custer service ace sealed the 31-29 Gardner-Webb victory.

Gardner-Webb again grabbed an early lead in the fourth set, but the 2-0 advantage did not last long as WCU took the lead and pushed it to 16-10 on a Peters ace. The Bulldogs once again answered the bell, this time to the tune of a 6-0 run fueled by two kills from Maggie Cornwall and capped by an ace from Pridgeon. The lead never grew to more than two for either side from that point as the teams battled to a 27-27 tie. Cornwall then slammed down three more kills to give GWU the 31-29 win and force a decisive game five.

The Catamounts raced out of the gates and silenced the crowd quickly in the fifth set by taking a 7-1 lead behind the serving of Meghan Boyle. The Lady Bulldogs managed to trim the deficit down to 11-8 in favor of WCU, but the early hole was too much to overcome as Western Carolina took the 3-2 match win with a 15-9 game-five victory.

On the night, the Catamounts were led by Parana, who tallied a career-high 23 kills while only committing one error for a .595 attack percentage. Kellyn Thaut added 20 kills with Ellie Talbot accounting for 21 of the team's 66 total digs. Boyle also recored a career-high with 66 set assists.

Pridgeon led the `Dogs with 20 kills and added 11 digs. Cornwall pounded down 17 kills to go with six digs while Harrison notched a double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs. Deshay Duddy set a new career-high with her 14 kills and Melanie Custer dished out 62 assists along with 12 digs. The 62 assists also marked a new career best for Custer who's previous high was 57 against UNC Greensboro in this year's season opening five-set win over the Spartans.

Western Carolina returns to action this Friday, October 1 in the season's home opener versus Elon. Match time is set for 7:00 pm at the Ramsey Activity Center. The Cats return home on Saturday, October 2 at 2:00 pm as they host UNC Greensboro, both in Southern Conference action.