SPARTANBURG, S.C. – USC Upstate volleyball wrestled the Runnin' Bulldogs for the first win of the season on the Spartans' home opener Thursday night at the G.B. Hodge Center. Upstate defeated Gardner-Webb 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-19, 25-19) to improve to 1-4 on the season.
"Coming away with the win felt pretty good. I think we did a good job on our scouting report and sticking to the game plan for tonight," said head coach Ronda Shirley. "We made some adjustments to our blocking that really helped down the stretch. Our middle offense has really taken off and I think our setters did a great job of getting our middles way more active in the match. We made a few more errors than I'd like to see, but they always bounced back. Overall, I'm pleased with how the match went."
After Upstate took three straight points for a 20-14 lead in the first set, Gardner-Webb climbed right back in it on a 5-0 run to level things up at 20-20. A kill from Breanna Gamueda made it 24-22 in favor of the Spartans, and Kelly Wiedemann was able to finish the set off with a kill to give Upstate to 1-0 advantage in the match.
The Spartans opened the second set on a 4-0 run, but then the Bulldogs responded with a 4-0 run of their own to tie things up at 6-all. The two teams went back-and-forth after that until Upstate took an 18-16 lead on three straight points, but Gardner-Webb would later take four straight to go up 23-21 before finishing the set off with a 25-23 win.
Upstate shook off a 3-0 run from the Bulldogs to open the third set and built up to a 10-6 before extending their lead to 15-9 on a big block from Gamueda and Alexis Mareko. Gardner-Webb later cut their deficit to 22-18 with a 5-0 run, but the Spartans never lost control of the lead as they took the third set 25-19.
Four straight service aces gave the Bulldogs a 14-12 lead in the fourth set, but Upstate later bounced back with a 9-1 run to take a 22-17 lead and force a Gardner-Webb timeout. A block by Mareko and Courtney Coffy made it 24-18 and Mareko fired the match-ending kill for the Spartans.
Match Leaders
Nikki Deslatte | 10 kills, .444 hitting percentage
Kelly Wiedemann | 8 kills, 11 digs
Alexis Mareko | 5 blocks, 6 kills
Emma McElveen | 10 assists, 5 kills on 7 attempts
Scout Hoffmeier | 15 digs
UP next for the Spartans
Upstate will look to sweep the series against Gardner-Webb tomorrow at 7 p.m.
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