By: By Joseph Feldman
Score:Â Kennesaw State 3, Jacksonville 2 (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 17-25, 15-10)
Records:Â Kennesaw State (8-8, 2-0), Jacksonville (3-11, 0-2)
Key Players:Â Anaiah Boyer (20 kills and 19 digs),
Kristi Piedimonte (60 assists and 10 digs),
Kelly Marcinek (15 kills),
Fanise Cannon (Six aces)
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Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (XML)
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THE STORYLINE:Â
· After dropping the opening set once again,
Kristi Piedimonte and
Anaiah Boyer led the Owls over the Jacksonville Dolphins in five sets at Historic Swisher Gymnasium.
SCHUNZEL ON THE WIN:
"I'm happy for our team that we pulled out a five-set conference win on the road. Credit to Jacksonville, who does some things a little differently that stressed our defense. At times we struggled getting into a good flow partially because of that. Our overall mentality was unfortunately not very good tonight. We struggled to find some of the edge that makes us who we are. I challenged the team afterwards to find that tomorrow, and I trust our group of competitors will respond well against a very good UNF team."
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HOW IT HAPPENED:Â
First Set:Â JU grabbed an early lead in the opening set at 6-1. After KSU came back to tie the score at seven, the Dolphins jumped out to another lead that the Owls couldn't overcome. The Owls got within two late in the set but couldn't get over the hump as Jacksonville took a lead in the match.
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Second Set: The second set almost went point-for-point until Jacksonville took a 17-15 lead after a 3-1 burst. The Owls refused to give up any more ground, catching fire and closing the second set on a 10-2 run to even the match at one.
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Third Set: With the set tight once again,
Anaiah Boyer pushed the Owls on a 5-0 run to go up 19-13 to take a commanding lead. The Owls didn't look back after that closing out the set 25-19.
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Fourth Set: Looking to close out the match, the Owls used a 9-1 run to go up 11-7 and seemed to have the momentum. The home team wasn't going to give up though as they responded with a big run of their own closing the set on a 14-3 run to push the match to a fifth set.
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Fifth Set: With the decisive final set tight, the Owls went on an 8-0 run taking a commanding 13-5 lead. JU fought off four match points, but Kennesaw State clinched the match on an attack error by the Dolphins to move to 2-0 in ASUN play.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:Â
· With the win against Jacksonville, the Owls move to 8-8 on the season and 2-0 in conference play. KSU has won seven straight matches dating back to beating Georgia State in the Georgia Challenge.
· Kennesaw State has started on the road for the first two matches of conference play and has won both in five setters. The Owls record in five setters for the season is 2-3.
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Fanise Cannon came up big with six service aces in the match. That is the second most in Kennesaw State history.
· The reigning ASUN Player of the Week,
Anaiah Boyer, once again had a huge match finishing with 20 kills and 19 digs.
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Kristi Piedimonte averaged 12 assists per set finishing the match with 60. She assisted on 60 of the 66 kills in the match for the Owls. The 60 assists is a new career high.
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UP NEXT
It's a quick turn-around for Kennesaw State as they take on North Florida Saturday, October 1 at 5 p.m. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN3.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State volleyball news follow the team on TwitterÂ
@KSUOwlNation andÂ
@KSUOwlsVBÂ or by liking Kennesaw State University onÂ
Facebook.
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All tickets to all 2016 home volleyball contests are free throughout the year.
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- #GoKSUOwls -