#4 Radford Sweeps #5 UNC Asheville, 3-0, to Reach Semifinals
By Radford Athletics
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Radford volleyball program dominated in their postseason match with fifth-seed UNC Asheville Friday afternoon cruising to a 3-0 victory to advance to the Big South Semifinals.
KEY STATS
* The Highlanders were dominant on the attack early hitting .583 in the first set and .393 in the second set.
* Sydney Mundkowsky led the offense with 13 kills while Sophie Paspal and Sierra Moore also finished with eight.
* Freshman Lea Gage stepped up in the match earning 14 assists and eight digs, both team-highs.
* UNC Asheville was held to just a .094 attack percentage, never eclipsing .200 in a set during the match.
* Radford never trailed by more than 4 points in any set.
PLAY BY PLAY
Right away in the match the Highlanders set the tone for the afternoon with a dominant offensive performance. The Highlanders went on a 3-0 run to start the match as Paspal and Mundkowsky combined for the first three points. After UNC Asheville went up 4-3, the two squads traded points until Radford got another 3-0 run to lead 9-6.
Kills from Rylee Sloss, Paspal and a big solo block by Paspal led Radford's charge to grow their lead to 13-8 in the opening set. Sierra Moore would provided a kill and a service ace as Radford built another 5-1 run to take a commanding 18-10 lead. The Bulldogs would scrap back to pull the set within four points, but Radford never faltered holding on to win the first set 25-20.
The Highlanders stayed hot into the second set immediately jumping out to a 5-1 lead. A timeout by UNC Asheville couldn't slow the team down as Mundkowsky continued to cruise with a pair of kills to make it 10-5 Radford. A 7-1 run fueled by three kills and an ace by Moore fully put the Highlanders in control at 17-8.
Some more errors proved costly by the Bulldogs as the Highlanders continued to capitalize. Olivia Flanagan got some booming kills along the way while Julia Slivka finished the set with an ace as Radford would go up 2-0 on the 25-14 set win.
In the third set, tides seemed to change as a nearly flawless start by the Highlanders began to even out. Service errors and attack errors plagued the early goings of the set as UNC Asheville was able to build their first strong lead of the day.
Down 18-15, a kill by Moore reignited Radford's efforts. Blocks by Paspal, Sloss and Moore slowed the Bulldogs attack and a kill from Flanagan made it just a 20-19 match. UNC Asheville bounced back out to extend their lead to 22-19 as they tried to force a fourth set.
Radford used its final remaining timeout to regroup, and out of the timeout the team caught fire once more. Mundkowsky earned a big kill that forced the Bulldogs to call their final timeout with the set at 22-21. Out of the timeout Radford didn't relent as Flanagan got a big kill and block assist to put Radford ahead 23-22, their first lead since being up 4-3 in the set.
From there Radford took advantage of a Bulldogs error to make it a match point at 24-23. Mundkowsky, digging deep for the Highlanders all match, was the one who sealed it with her 13th kill finalizing the 3-0 sweep.
NOTABLES
* The postseason victory is the first for the Highlanders since the 2018 season, a 3-0 win in Asheville, N.C.
* Out with injury, Mundkowsky hadn't appeared in a match for the Highlanders since October 5th. With 13 kills today, it was the 11th time in 13 matches she has recorded 10+ kills.
* UNC Asheville had swept the regular season series over Radford in 3-2 and 3-1 finals. With the win today, the Highlanders now lead the all-time series with the Bulldogs 34-30.
UP NEXT
Radford moves on to the conference semifinals where they will take on the one seed High Point tomorrow on Saturday, November 23rd at 3 p.m. Action will be streamed on ESPN+ as the Highlanders look to upset the weekend hosts.