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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team put up a season high 16 blocks as the Owls took a 3-2 (25-21,17-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-12) thriller over Jacksonville to even their Atlantic Sun Conference record at 3-3.
Freshman
Cierra Royster (Mableton, Ga./Cumberland Christian HS) put up a career high 11 blocks while junior
Emily Bean (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike HS) tied a season high with eight. Outside hitter
Turea Jones (Santa Rosa, Calif./Santa Rosa JC) put up 18 kills to lead the KSU offense while
Keyaira Stevenson (Columbia, S.C./Ridgeview HS) finished with 14 and
Baylee Strachan (Sioux City, Iowa/Winthrop) earned 11.
“I’m just really excited to see our blocking defense turn on,” said Kennesaw State head coach
Karen Weatherington. “We stopped a lot of balls at the net and that was crucial for us. They’re a scrappy team with a lot of fight and I’m just happy we came in here, into a hostile environment, and came out with a win.”
The match was just the second of the year for KSU that went to five sets, the last being a 3-2 win over Mississippi State back on August 25. The Owls now hold an overall record of 14-7 and will take on North Florida in a crucial A-Sun match tomorrow at 3 p.m.
In the fifth set, it was Jones who came through with the game winner, slamming home a kill to give KSU the 15-12 set win. KSU picked up the lead at 2-1 on a Jones service ace and never trailed again in the decisive set, pulling away to a 7-4 lead on a Jacksonville (3-16, 1-5 A-Sun) attack error.
The Owls had to rally from behind in the opening set, scoring the final four and six of the last seven points to take the 25-21 win. The black and gold capitalized on six errors by the Dolphins to go up in the match, 1-0.
JU put together a late run of its own in the second set, scoring seven straight to pull away with the 25-17 win. The Owls had climbed within one point of the Dolphins at 18-17 on a Jacksonville attack error, but couldn’t hold off the JU offense late in the set, evening the match at one.
The third set was all KSU as the Owls blasted away to an 18-10 lead on a pair of kills from Strachan and Jones. Jacksonville was poised for another late comeback, scoring three straight to make it 24-17 Owls, but a service error by the Dolphins gave KSU the 25-17 set win and a 2-1 advantage in the match.
Set four was again tightly contested with neither team grabbing more than a two point lead at 10-10. Stevenson put the Owls up by one, 11-10, before five straight Dolphin points gave JU the 15-11 lead. Jacksonville then jumped out to a 20-13 lead before ultimately winning, 25-21 to knot the match at two.
The Owls continue to improve upon their season attack percentage, hitting .270 for the match while holding the Dolphins to a .218 mark.
Jones earned her sixth double-double of the season, adding 10 digs to her 18 kill performance. Libero Camille Pedraza (Marietta, Ga./Kell HS) led the Owls with 12.
Setter Sara Metroka (New Castle, Ind./New Castle Chrysler HS) aided in the win with 47 assists and three kills.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State volleyball news follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsVB or by liking Kennesaw State University Volleyball on Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
Around the A-Sun
Mercer 3, UNF 2
ETSU 3, Northern Kentucky 2
Lipscomb 3, USC Upstate 0
