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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team will look to make it four wins in a row Tuesday as the Owls head to Spartanburg, S.C. for a midweek match against USC Upstate.
The Owls defeated Upstate back on Sept. 18, 3-1, in the Atlantic Sun Conference opener for both squads. Both
Keyaira Stevenson (Columbia, S.C./Ridgeview HS) and
Turea Jones (Santa Rosa, Calif./Santa Rosa JC) had 20 kill performances while setter
Sara Metroka (New Castle, Ind./New Castle Chrysler HS) set a career high with 67 assists.
Kennesaw State, now 15-7 overall and 4-3 in the A-Sun, will look to remain perfect on the road as the Owls are 6-0 away from the KSU Convocation Center, the only team in the A-Sun with an unblemished record away from its home floor.
The Spartans of USC Upstate have just one conference win in six matches, a 3-0 win over Stetson, and are currently 6-12 overall.
Upstate does hold one of the top defenses in the league, coming in at second in the A-Sun in digs per set with a 17.68 average. Offensively, sophomore Kayla McAvoy continues to lead the Spartans and is top five in the conference in both hitting percentage (.320) and kills per set (3.38).
The Owls will bring in one of the A-Sun’s top performers as of late in senior
Baylee Strachan (Sioux City, Iowa/Winthrop). Strachan now has six games with a hitting percentage of .600 or higher and is hitting at an unprecedented .395 in league matches only.
Fellow senior
Turea Jones (Santa Rosa, Calif./Santa Rosa JC) now has eight double-doubles on the year after adding two more to her name over the weekend. Jones is one of four players in the A-Sun with 200 kills (244) and 200 digs (244).
Stevenson is coming off of her second 20 kill match of her career in the team’s 3-0 win over North Florida where she broke her career high with a .567 attack percentage.
Freshman
Cierra Royster has separated herself from the rest of the pack in the blocking category, leading the team with 55 total after an 11 block match at Jacksonville. As a team, the Owls put up 16 total blocks during the 3-2 win, a single match high for the black and gold.
Metroka is now closing in on the 1,000 assists mark for the season, sitting at 820 total and 10.93 per set.
Libero
Camille Pedraza (Marietta, Ga./Kell HS) continues to be a stronghold for the KSU defense, reaching the 300 dig total at North Florida, putting the A-Sun Preseason Libero of the Year at 307 on the year.
Match time is set for 7 p.m. against USC Upstate, the final match of a four game road trip for the Owls. The black and gold will return home this Saturday as they host in state rival Mercer.
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.
