NOTES | LIVE STATS (FGCU) | VIDEO (Stetson)

TALKING POINTS
» The Kennesaw State volleyball team will fly to Fort Myers, Florida to play Florida Gulf Coast on Friday, November 7 at 6:30 p.m. and then drive up to Stetson to play the Hatters on Saturday, November 8 at 5 p.m.
» Kristi Piedimonte won her second Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Week award this week after totaling 88 assists and 28 digs against North Florida and Jacksonville. She also added nine kills and three service aces last weekend. This is the second week in a row and the fourth time this season that the Owls have claimed an A-Sun weekly award.
» After splitting with North Florida and Jacksonville, KSU is tied for fifth in the conference standings. All three teams still have FGCU, Stetson, Northern Kentucky and Lipscomb on their schedules to finish the regular season.
  
THE COMPETITION
Florida Gulf Coast                          
FGCU (15-9, 8-2) relies heavily on its upper classmen with their senior setter Gigi Meyer to go along with the other three seniors Olivia Mesner, Whitney Masters and Jessica Barnes.
 
The second place Eagles only two losses are both against Lipscomb.
 
The Eagles head coach Matt Botsford is in the middle of his first season as the head coach. He most recently was the assistant coach at Colorado State. 
 
Stetson                                            
Stetson (14-10, 5-5) has welcomed a new coach this season as Kristina Hernandez has taken over the indoor volleyball team.
 
Offensively, the Hatters are led by two underclassmen in sophomore Madison Akins with 273 kills and redshirt freshman McKenna Foster with 180 kills
 
After winning five straight matches in A-Sun play, the Hatters have lost four straight.
 
» NEWS AND NOTES
Last Time Out                              
» KSU played in two long five-set matches splitting with Jacksonville and North Florida. The Owls beat Jacksonville in a marathon match that saw three of the five sets go into extra points. Less than 24 hours later, North Florida came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Kennesaw State in five.
 
Coach Schunzel on the Jacksonville Win
» "It's big. Anytime you get a conference win it's big. Coming in to tonight obviously we were tied with Jacksonville and North Florida in the standings, but we really didn't focus on that too much this week. I'm just proud of how we fought in the match and kept grinding and came out and played an excellent set five, probably our best set of the year, and came out with the win."
 
KSU as a Team                              
» The matches in A-Sun play so far have been nail biters for the Owls. Three of the four KSU wins have been in five sets, and until the loss to North Florida, Kennesaw State had been undefeated in conference matches that went the distance. For the season, the Owls are 4-2 in five set matches.
» The long match against Jacksonville rewrote the record books in attacks, digs and kills. The 216 attacks were the most a team has ever had, the 108 digs is the third most in a match and the 71 kills is fifth most ever in a match.
» En route to having 108 digs, the Owls had three players with at least 21 digs and two more players with 15. Katarina Morton led the way with 28, Toure Hopkins had 22, Piedimonte had 21 and both Anaiah Boyer and Ria Ridley had 15.
 
KSU Individually                         
» Boyer has elevated her game as the season has gone on. Her streak of double-doubles ended at five when she accumulated nine kills and 10 digs against North Florida. In the previous five matches, she had 69 kills and 60 digs. Boyer's blocking has also stepped up as she has posted 13 blocks in those five matches.
» Morton is second in the conference in digs per set averaging 4.44. In conference play, her play has gone up to another level as she is averaging 4.97 digs per set, which is also second in the A-Sun.
» Piedimonte and Morton's service has been an offensive weapon for the Owls all season. Piedimonte leads the team with 31 service aces and Morton has 29. The single-season record at Kennesaw State is 33 by by Holly Knight in 2011.
 » Ridley has received her most extensive action all season staying in for all six rotations the last three matches. Against USC Upstate, she posted a new career high in digs with 20. Her previous career high in digs was four. Against Jacksonville with the team needing her to step once against, Ridley had 21 kills hitting .263. Her previous career high in kills was 13.
» Ridley wasn't the only player to step up against the Dolphins. Junior Toure Hopkins had career highs in digs with 22 and kills with 18.

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