Ward and Gardiner Lead OU in Comeback

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	4
Georgia Southern (0-2)	25	20	23	18
Oklahoma (2-0)	20	25	25	25

Stat Comparison
Category	OU	GSU
Kills	54	48
Pct.	.296	.226
Digs	43	46
Blocks	6.0	8.0

Inidivual Leaders
Category	OU	GSU
Kills	Ward - 18	Bange - 13
Assists	Doyle - 44	Minnerly - 40
Digs	Migliazzo - 13	DeRatt - 13
Blocks	Hazelwood - 3	Curry - 4

Player of the Match
Madison Ward // RSo. // OH Ward set a new career-high with 18 kills and totaled 33 on the day after matching her previous career-high with 15 in the season-opening win earlier in the day against Idaho.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Outside hitters Madison Ward (Lawton, Okla.) and Kimmy Gardiner (Grapevine, Texas) provided much of the offense in a 3-1, comeback win for the University of Oklahoma volleyball team over Georgia Southern. The Sooners improved to 2-0 at the Active Ankle Challenge, hosted by the University of Florida, Friday evening.

Oklahoma dropped the first set to the Eagles, 25-20 before rattling off narrow victories of 25-20 and 25-23, while ultimately claiming the match with a 25-18 win in the fourth.

Ward set a new career-high in kills after posting 15 in the season opener earlier in the day against Idaho. She hit .361, while Gardiner hit a match-high .452 and each added eight digs.

Junior setter Julia Doyle (Plymouth, Minn.) collected 44 assists and added five digs. Junior libero Taylor Migliazzo (Kansas City, Mo.) led the Sooners with 13 digs.

Oklahoma took the third set, a back-and-forth affair, and began to pull away for the win in the fourth. The Sooners held a narrow 14-13 lead and finished the set on an 11-5 run, including two kills by freshman middle blocker Marion Hazelwood (Beach City, Texas), the second of which came as the match-winner.

For Georgia Southern, Katie Bange led the way in a 17-kill effort and hit .368. Kat Minnerly dished out 40 assists and Jamie DeRatt matched Migliazzo's match-high with 13 digs.

Weekend play resumes on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 pm against Florida. The match can be streamed online at the SEC Network.

Notes:

For the day, Ward totaled 33 kills, averaged 4.71 per set and hit .373.
Gardiner totaled 25 kills, averaged 3.57 per set and hit a team-high .457.
Julia Doyle recorded 40 or more assists for the second straight match and 22^nd time in her career.
The match was the first-ever between the two programs.