By: by Jason Hanes
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KENNESAW, Ga. -
Asjia Stokes,
Sabrita Gulley, and
Rachael Albright each had double-doubles as the Kennesaw State volleyball team rolled past Mercer, 3-1 (18-25, 25-19, 25-17, 26-24), on Tuesday night at the KSU Convocation Center in the Atlantic Sun Conference opener for both teams.
"I expected a gritty match," said KSU head coach
Karen Weatherington, who saw her team improve to 6-1 with the win, tying the program record for victories in a season. "We've played some tough teams up until now, but conference play is so much different. There's a lot higher expectation on both sides. Our team was able to rise up and meet that challenge tonight."
Stokes continued her solid play with a match-high 17 kills to go along with 12 digs. Gulley connected on attacks 15 times successfully, digging up 15 Mercer attacks as well. Albright had 28 assists on the evening to go along with 10 digs.
Defensively, the Owls rose to the challenge fending off Mercer's 181 attacks. The Owls had 96 digs, setting a new program record.
Chelsey Denesha tallied a career-high and KSU record-tying 23 digs, while Selina O'Leary managed 20 in the four-set match.
"The coaching staff has been emphasizing how good we are defensively," Coach Weatherington added. We're really starting to see the dividends to the investment we've been making on a daily basis in practice on a defensive level."
The final set was the most competitive of the night with 13 ties and 7 lead changes. The Owls trailed 19-16, but Coach Weatherington used her second timeout to keep her charges focused.
"I knew we had to stay focused on every point. We couldn't worry about other things that were happening around us; all we could worry about was ourselves and our play," Coach Weatherington said. "We were focused on the court, and the results played out to our advantage after the timeout."
Two Mercer attack errors after the stoppage cut the Bears lead to just one. After an ace by Stokes, KSU had tied the set, 19-19. An over pass by the Bears was knocked down with authority by
Callie Churchwell, giving the Owls a 20-19 lead and sending Mercer into its first timeout of the set.
KSU kept running after the timeout, getting a block from Churchwell and
Ginny Frederick to take a two-point lead. A ball handling error gave the Owls a 22-19 lead and put the run at 6-0 for the home squad. Mercer would come back to cut the lead to one, 22-21, but the teams would trade points until KSU had match point at 24-22. Off a timeout, Mercer would take the next two points to negate KSU's chance of winning, but only temporarily. A kill by Gulley gave the Owls match point again, and this time the home team would not be denied as Stokes completed the contest with her 17th kill, touching off a celebration in the Convocation Center.
After the Owls dropped the first set to Mercer, 25-18, the home team was not to be denied the rest of the contest. The two teams played the first 18 points of the second set evenly, but a 7-0 run, sparked by four KSU kills and a pair of Mercer attack errors, gave the Owls a 16-9 lead. The Owls would stretch the lead to eight before the Bears rallied to cut the lead to five, 24-19. On KSU's second set point attempt, Stokes powered home an over pass by Mercer, tying the match at one set each.
The Owls led the third set 14-13 until a quick spurt by the home team put that set out of reach for the visitors. A kill by Stokes started the run and was followed with a successful attack by Churchwell, who had a career-high 10 kills. Stokes sent Mercer into a timeout with a kill, then off the stoppage, a Denesha kill gave the Owls an 18-13 lead and a 4-0 run. After a Mercer point, the Owls continued to run away and hide. Denesha notched two kills and an ace and Stokes dropped home a kill to give the Owls an 8-1 run and a 22-14 lead. A short time later, Churchwell put the set away with a kill, giving the Owls a 2-1 lead in the contest.
Krista Hurley led the Mercer attack with 13 kills while Amiee Frutchey had a match-high 29 digs for the Bears.
KSU will be idle until Saturday when the Owls travel to Spartanburg, S.C., to take on USC Upstate in an A-Sun match. First serve is slated for 6 p.m.
