Score: Kennesaw State 3, Troy 1 (23-25, 25-12, 25-15, 25-18)
Records: Kennesaw State (1-0), Troy (0-4)
Key Players: Sydni Shelton (8 kills hitting .533), Anaiah Boyer (15 kills and nine digs), Rachel Taylor (8 kills hitting .467 and 4 blocks)
 
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THE STORYLINE: 
· In front of a huge opening day crowd, the Kennesaw State Owls got off to a slow start in the first set before getting things rolling in set two and never looked back cruising to a four-set victory over the Troy Trojans.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 
Kennesaw State trailed by as many as six points in the first set before trying to mount a comeback pulling even at 23 all. The Trojans had the upper hand in the first set though and closed it out winning two straight points to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
After shaking the rust off in the first set, KSU came out with some more fire in the second set taking a big lead behind Kristi Piedimonte and Karlee Groover serving. After hitting .057 in the first set, the Owls came back hitting .375 in the second set with 12 kills and only three errors.
 
After seizing the momentum in the second set, Kennesaw State never looked back crushing the Trojans 25-15 in the third and then 25-18 in the fourth to secure a win in their home opener.
  
SCHUNZEL'S QUOTE:
"First off, I want to thank all of the people that came out. Having 1200 people in the stands on opening night is a fantastic way to start the season. We had to shake some rust off early and played poorly in the first set, but then our mentality shifted and we got much more aggressive serving and passing as well as our attacking and blocking at the net. That's when the tide of the match turned. After that, we controlled the match and dominated sets two, three and four with a lot of people putting up great numbers."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 
· With 1,206 fans in attendance, this is the largest opening night crowd in the Schunzel era.  
·After hitting .057 in the first set, Kennesaw State hit .375, .433 and .387 respectively in each set the rest of the way to hit .300 total for the match.
· The Owls defense was also in strong form holding Troy to .047 in the match with 10 blocks as well.
· Kennesaw State had two outside hitters with double-digit kills as Anaiah Boyer led the way with 15 and Maddie Jones stepped up with 11.
· The Owls had double-digit blocks with 10.0 led by Liesl Engelbrecht with 5 and Rachel Taylor with 4.

UP NEXT
The Owls will travel to Clemson for a midweek matchup on Tuesday, August 29 at 7 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 on Facebook.
 
All tickets to all 2016 home volleyball contests are free throughout the year.