Sept. 20, 2006

Final Stats

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - The Gardner-Webb volleyball team, behind the strength of the best-ever attack percentage in school history, defeated the Winston-Salem State Lady Rams by a 3-0 score (30-14, 30-12, 30-12) Tuesday evening at Paul Porter Arena.

Winners of six of the last seven matches, the Bulldogs improve their record to 6-7 on the season while the Lady Rams drop to 2-13 on the year.

Behind a solid all-around match by every student-athlete on the team, GWU established a school record with an attack percentage of .563, besting the previous mark of .393 that was set Sept. 12, 2003 against Savannah State.

Leading the way was sophomore Bethany Martin and junior Ashley Pridgeon. Martin broke the individual school record after boasting an attack percentage of .800 on nine kills with just one error on 10 attempts. Pridgeon tied the fourth-best performance in GWU history with her .562 percentage. She tallied 11 kills with two errors on 16 total attempts. Jackie Mathison, had she recorded one more attempt to meet the minimum of 10 needed for the record book, would have etched her name in GWU's history as well. She totaled seven kills on nine attempts for a .778 attack percentage.

The Bulldogs never trailed in game one. After jumping to an early lead, the Lady Rams tied the score at 7-7. However, Martin's kill jump-started a 14-2 run for GWU. During the spurt, Pridgeon recorded an ace, Martin recorded two kills, Gibson notched two kills and Mathison tallied one. WSSU cut the lead to nine at 21-12, but could get no closer as Mathison, Pridgeon, Martin and Gibson posted kills to help the Bulldogs close the contest on a 9-2 run.

GWU continued its stellar play in game two, racing out to a 7-1 advantage. After a Martin kill to make the score 13-6 in favor of the home squad, freshman Brett Wilson went back to serve. Wilson notched three consecutive service aces before the Lady Rams were able to put the ball in play.

With the score 17-7, Katie Matykowski stumped the WSSU defense with two of her match-high five service aces. While Matykowski was serving, the Bulldogs' freshman tandem of Jessica Clayton and Katie Holt each notched a kill. Clayton, who has seen an increase in playing time the last two matches, closed out game two with the first two service aces of her career.

Trailing 2-0 in game three, a service error by Annika Barnwell swung the momentum back in favor of the Bulldogs. Freshman setter Regina Feagin, who dished out a match-high 39 assists, served the ball seven times in a row, six of which resulted in points for GWU.

After a service error by Feagin gave the ball back to WSSU, Clayton got the serve back for the home squad with another kill, this time off an assist by Feagin. The Bulldogs were never seriously challenged in the third game, using a 12-3 run to close the match.

As a team, the Bulldogs recorded 16 service aces, which ties the second-best effort in school history. Matykowski's five service aces are the sixth most in GWU history.

The Lady Rams were led by Seidah El-Amin who tallied a team-high four kills in the loss.  Gardner-Webb was led by Ashley Pridgeon who recorded 11 total kills.

The Lady Rams return to action on Saturday and Sunday, September 23 and 24, 2006 as they host the 2006 Lady Rams Invitational Volleyball Tournament.

For additional information on WSSU women's volleyball, contact the WSSU Office of Sports Information at (336) 750-2143 or log on to the Official Website of WSSU Athletics at www.WSSURAMS.com

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