By: by Jason Hanes
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Alyssa Lang had 21 kills and 16 digs and Grace Hoyt had 11 kills with a .500 attack percentage, but the Kennesaw State volleyball team fell, 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 30-28, 25-22) to East Tennessee State Friday night in the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships.
"We weren't able to match ETSU's effort tonight until we were in too much of a hole," said KSU head coach Karen Weatherington. "Obviously, this is a very disappointing loss for our program. I hate it for our seniors that this match had to end this way. As a team, we showed true character to force a fourth set after fighting off so many match points. It will be very tough for us to not be part of the final tomorrow, but we will work even harder to make sure that we will be in that final next year."
Senior Sabrita Gulley had 18 kills and a solo block for the Owls in the loss. She finished the season with a school-record 418 points and a school-record 385 kills.
The Owls (17-11) fell behind by six in the first set and could never move into a tie, falling 25-21. In set two, the Owls led by four, 14-10, but the Bucs slowly whittled away the lead until the set was tied, 18-18. The teams traded points until ETSU took the lead, 21-20. The Bucs took a two-point lead, 24-22, but the Owls fought off the first set point. Even though the Owls felt they had won the second set point due to a blatant lift by ETSU, the call was not made and the Bucs would win a long rally to take the second set, 25-23.
The two teams played the first 46 points of the third set to a, 23-23, tie. After an ETSU attack error, KSU had its first set point of the night. Instead, back-to-back attack errors gave the Bucs match point, 25-24. An attack error by the Bucs enabled KSU to fight off the first match point, but a KSU error gave ETSU another try, 26-25. A Hoyt kill tied the set again, 26-26, but ETSU regained the lead with a kill, 27-26. The Owls finally put ETSU on the button as an attack error by the Bucs and a kill by Gulley gave KSU set point again, 28-27. After an attack error by the Owls tied the set for the 14th and final time, a Gulley kill and an ETSU attack error gave KSU the third set, 30-28.
After leading early in the fourth set, the Owls found themselves down, 22-20, in the latter stages. Gulley would connect for her 18th kill of the night to pull KSU within one, and Lang delivered her 21st kill to pull KSU even one more time. That would prove to be the last time the set would be tied, however, as the Bucs scored three straight points to close out the season on KSU, winning the final set, 25-22.
Lang's 21 kills enabled the junior to finish the season with an even 300. Freshman Sara Metroka's 51 assists on the night pushed her season total to a program-record 979 in 99 sets played.
The Owls finish the season with a program record for winning percentage (.607) and also tied the school record for wins in a season at 17.
