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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team made it five wins in a row Friday night, taking down host team Charlotte in the opening match of the 49er Invitational in straight sets, 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-17).
The Owls move to 9-3 on the year, benefiting from stout defensive play, holding the 7-3 49ers to a .164 attack percentage for the match, including a .000 mark in the opening set alone.
“That’s exactly what we wanted to do coming out of the gate,” said Kennesaw State Head Coach
Karen Weatherington. “We held their big hitters in check in a very hostile environment. I couldn’t have asked for a better performance.”
The Owls blasted through set one in Halton Arena, hushing the crowd by taking a quick 3-1 lead with a pair of
Keyaira Stevenson (Columbia, S.C./Ridgeview High School) kills. The 49ers got within one at the 9-8 mark, but the Owls quickly responded, clipping off three straight points to make it 12-8. A 6-0 run for KSU then put the set out of reach at 18-10 for what was an eventual 25-15 set win.
A huge
Emily Bean (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike High School) block followed by a
Turea Jones (Santa Rosa, Calif./Santa Rosa JC) kill gave the Owls all they needed to close out the 49ers in a much tighter second set, 25-22. Charlotte held a brief lead at 14-13 until a service error tied things back up at 14 and a
Camille Pedraza (Marietta, Ga./Kell High School) service ace gave KSU back the lead for good.
The match clincher went to Jones, who split a pair of defenders for the kill to take the 25-17 win in set three with an assist from her libero Pedraza. The Owls again benefited from a six point run midway through, catapulting from down one at 12-10 to take a 16-12 lead.
Jones led the Owls in kills once again, smashing 12 during the win to go along with her eight digs. Bean was right behind Jones with 10 kills in 15 attempts, good enough for a .533 attack percentage. As a team, KSU hit .278, the second highest average for the team on the road all year.
Pedraza was tops with 11 digs while freshman
Jenna Wilt (Woodstock, Ga./Etowah High School) also landed in double-digits with 10. Senior
Baylee Strachan (Sioux City, Iowa/Winthrop) continues her impressive string of games, putting up a pair of block assists.
“It was a great win but now we need to hurry up and shift our focus,” added Weatherington. “We’ll enjoy it tonight and be ready to go bright and early tomorrow morning.”
The Owls will have a quick turnaround, returning to action Saturday morning at 10 a.m. to take on the 10-3 Tigers of Towson. Kennesaw State will close out the 49er Invitational later in the afternoon against UNC-Asheville at 4:30 p.m.
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.
