SPARTANBURG, S.C. – With the regular season winding down and teams jockeying to improve their placement in the league standings, USC Upstate volleyball took a major step toward solidifying its seeding as it downed Gardner-Webb in four sets Friday evening. The victory came on a historic night inside the G.B. Hodge Center, seeing major career milestones and single-season program records set.
 
The night saw the first new member of the program's 1,000-Kill Club since 2016 as senior middle blocker Ady O'Grady became the 13^th member of the club with her 11^th kill of the night, coming in set four. The program's single-season record for digs by a freshman also fell in the match as freshman libero Sophia Overholt, behind a program single-game freshman record 36 digs, pushing her season total to 422 and counting.
 
Game Information
Score: USC Upstate 3; Gardner-Webb 1 (25-21; 22-25; 25-22; 25-13)
Records: USC Upstate (14-11; 7-5 Big South); Gardner-Webb (12-17; 3-9 Big South)
Location: G.B. Hodge Center | Spartanburg, S.C.
 
How It Happened
Completing the season sweep and securing its fourth straight victory over the Runnin' Bulldogs, Upstate rode the strength of its offensive attack—an offense owning the top two attackers in the Big South Conference in total kills—seeing three Spartans register double-digit kills.
 
Collecting her 13^th straight match with 10 or more kills, freshman outside hitter Summer Kohler, the league's leader in total kills, headlined the trio with a match-best 17 terminations. Freshman right-side hitter Kensley Haneline added 13 kills while O'Grady chipped in 12, surpassing the 1,000-kill mark for her career to round out the trio.
 
Pacing the team's offense, sophomore setter Kamyla Vega David dished out 48 assists, including a staggering 18 helpers in the first set, becoming the first Upstate setter since Madison Haake in 2018 to record 1,000-plus apples in a season. She also collected 10 digs, registering her 15^th double-double of the year.
 
Going toe-to-toe with the nation's leader in total digs, Overholt ended the night with a career-high 36 digs—one shy of the program's single-match record—scooping the most balls in a single match by a Big South player this season. Joining Overholt and Vega David in double-figures, redshirt junior defensive specialist Emma DeSensi totaled 13 digs.
 
At the net, defensively, Upstate recorded 8.0 team total blocks. The team's middle blocker tandem, junior Cora Hamilton and O'Grady, combined for four total blocks each, registering two solo blocks and two block assists apiece.
 
Notable

• Recording 12 kills Friday night, Ady O'Grady became the 13^th member of the program's 1,000-Kill Club. She becomes the first new member of the club since Emily Koelling in 2016.
• Picking up a program freshman single-match record 36 digs versus Gardner-Webb, Sophia Overholt moved her season dig total to 422. The total marks the program's freshman record for digs by a freshman, besting the 406 digs by Kristin Korte in 1998.
• Passing out 48 assists against the Runnin' Bulldogs, Kamyla Vega David ends the night with 1,015 assists on the season. She's the first Upstate setter since Madison Haake (1,090) in 2018, with 1,000 or more assists in a season.

 
Up Next for the Spartans
Returning to action to close out the final multi-game weekend of the regular season, Upstate faces Winthrop Saturday afternoon. Match time for the team's final Saturday home match is set for 5 p.m. ET.
 
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