Score: Kennesaw State 3, Lipscomb 2 (19-25, 25-17, 19-25, 25-14, 15-9)
Records: Kennesaw State (13-4, 7-1), Lipscomb (11-10, 4-4)
Key Players: Liesl Engelbrecht (14 kills hitting .458 and nine blocks), Anaiah Boyer (14 kills, 11 digs, six blocks and three service aces), Sydni Shelton (12 kills hitting .290 and nine blocks)

Box Score (PDF) | Box Score (XML)
 
THE STORYLINE: 
· Kennesaw State was victorious in five sets against the Lipscomb Bisons sweeping them on the season for the first time in school history.
 
The Owls defense and physicality showed up big time in the match as the team finished with 19 blocks to set a new school record.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 
Lipscomb came out on fire in the first set playing in front of a lot of their former teammates for alumni weekend. The Bisons stretched out their lead to as many as seven and closed the set out by six to take the early lead in the match.
 
Trailing by a set, Kennesaw State came out as the aggressor in the second set forcing Lipscomb to use an early timeout down five. The Owls got up by as many as 10 before closing it out 25-17 to even the match up as both teams went to the locker room. KSU had six blocks in the second set.
 
The momentum shifted back to Lipscomb in the third set as they once again took a huge lead and held KSU to an .030 hitting percentage. With the Owls trailing by eight, head coach Keith Schunzel substituted in Lexi Broadwater for setter for the rest of the set and she took KSU on a 6-0 run forcing Lipscomb to use both of their timeouts. Kennesaw State ended up dropping the set, but took back a lot of momentum heading into the fourth set.
 
With their backs against the wall, Kennesaw State once again rose to the occasion taking it to Lipscomb in the fourth topping them 25-14. The Owls jumped out to a huge lead early and didn't look back winning the set by 11 forcing a fifth set.
 
In the fifth set, Kennesaw State's physical presence with Sydni Shelton, Rachel Taylor and Liesl Engelbrecht was too much for Lipscomb as the Owls took an 8-4 lead. The Bisons wouldn't get any closer than that the rest of the way as KSU closed out the match to sweep Lipscomb on the season.
 
SCHUNZEL QUOTE
"In a rollercoaster match for both teams, I'm very proud of our mental fortitude tonight. Neither team could find great rhythm offensively for long stretches of time, but kudos to our seniors and leadership for staying steady and enduring through some ups and downs. As the match went on, our serve and block really started to take over, and sets four and five went our way in big part because of those two things. 

Special shout out to the KSU women's soccer team for coming to cheer us on tonight before their big game tomorrow night! The energy they brought to the arena truly made a difference in how that match played out.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 
· This is the first time that Kennesaw State has ever swept Lipscomb in the regular season. It is also the first time the Bisons have been swept by any ASUN team since 2013.
· Since 2015, five of the seven matches against Lipscomb have gone to five sets with the Owls being victorious in three of them.
· The team's 19 blocks tonight set a new school record. The previous record was 18 against Lipscomb in 2015.
· In the three sets that Kennesaw State won, they held Lipscomb to hitting percentages of .070, .029 and -.174.
· After Carlyle Nusbaum, the ASUN's kills leader, had seven kills in the first set, the Owls held her to just 10 in the other four sets.
· Three Kennesaw State players had nine blocks as Taylor led the way with 10 and Engelbrecht and Shelton both had nine. Anaiah Boyer was next on the list with six.
· Engelbrecht also had a huge night offensively as well having 14 kills hitting .458.

UP NEXT
Kennesaw State will stay on the road as they will take on NJIT on Friday, October 27 at 7 p.m. Then, KSU will travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina to play USC Upstate at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 29.

To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State volleyball news follow the team on Twitter @KSUOwlNation and @KSUOwlsVB or by liking Kennesaw State University on Facebook.
 
It is free admission to all home volleyball matches for the Owls.