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LYNCHBURG, Va. – Sophomore Lauren Chastang exploded for a career-high 23 kills to propel the Kennesaw State volleyball team to a four-set victory over Liberty, 25-27, 25-14, 25-14, 25-22, Sunday afternoon.
 
KSU has won its last nine straight, and are the only undefeated team remaining in the ASUN following Lipscomb's loss to FGCU Sunday.
 
How it happened: The Owls (15-4, 6-0) came out swinging, taking a 6-0 lead over Liberty (7-12, 4-2) to open the match. The Lady Flames rallied to within one, 9-8, but KSU answered with a 4-0 run, capped off by an ace from Liesl Engelbrecht, to regain some breathing room, 13-8.
 
Liberty eventually tied the match, following a 5-0 run capped off by back-to-back blocks to even the set 20-20. The Owls earned set point after a 4-1 run, but three errors from KSU tied the match 24-24. After KSU earned set point once again, Liberty rattled off the next three points to win the set 27-25.
 
Chastang recorded eight kills in the first set, but the Owls committed 12 errors and a .062 hitting percentage.
 
After a back-and-forth start to the second set, KSU gained control with a 5-1 run to take an 11-6 lead. The Owls built their lead to as high as 11 points, 20-9, following a 7-0 run which featured three aces from Karlee Groover. KSU closed it out hitting .333 in the set to win 25-14.
 
Kennesaw State kept its momentum out of the intermission, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. The Owls continued to pressure LU, building an 11-point lead, 22-11, following back-to-back kills from Dani Ballou.
 
Ballou logged four of the Owls final five points as KSU recorded a dominant 25-14 third set victory. KSU registered a phenomenal .640 hitting percentage in the third set.
 
In the fourth set, KSU gained an early 5-2 lead following a 4-0 run. The Owls maintained the lead throughout the set, building it to as high as 18-11 after a 5-1 run capped off by three kills from Engelbrecht.
 
Liberty crept back into the match late, outscoring KSU 7-2 and fending off three match points to cut the Owls lead down to 24-22. Chastang finally shut the door with a kill. She recorded KSU's final three points in the set, logging eight kills in the third.
 
Notes: Lauren Chastang recorded her second straight double-double, ninth of the year, with 11 digs to go along with her career-high 23 kills … Chastang's 23 kills marks tis tied for the third most kills all-time in a four-set match. It's also the first time an Owl has recorded 20 or more kills in a match since Maddie Jones' 20 kill performance against Illinois State in September of 2017 … Lexi Broadwater tied her career-high for the third time this season with 51 assists, marking back-to-back matches with 50 or more assists … Liesl Engelbrecht recorded 11 kills, her third straight match with double-digit kills … The Owls recorded over 60 kills for the second straight match … Five Owls recorded an ace, led by Groover with three … With four blocks in the match, Engelbrecht moved into a tie for eighth on the KSU single-season blocks list with 77.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On the weekend sweep…
"Our team grew up a lot this weekend. To go on the road and play two extremely high level, consistent matches against strong opponents like Liberty and FGCU and get two wins out of it is a really hard thing to do."
 
On terrific performances from the team…
"Huge performance by Lauren Chastang today. She played a complete all-around match today, passing and digging, to go along with her incredible attacking performance. Karlee Groover did again what she's been doing day in and day out, which is leading us, making plays when we need them, and was lights out in the back court. Lexi Broadwater was in charge of the court as she has been all year and set one heck of a match. And Madeline Johnson came off the bench and played a terrific match, going 6-of-8 offensively and giving us a terrific presence in the middle."
 
Up next: The Owls return home for the annual Griffin's Game this Friday, hosting Jacksonville at 7 p.m.