Friday, Nov. 16
7:30 p.m. – No. 2 Kennesaw State (23-6, 14-2) vs No. 3 Lipscomb (17-11, 12-4) or No. 6 North Florida (11-21, 5-10)
Location: Kennesaw, Ga. | Convocation Center
Links – Live Stats | ESPN+ | Match Notes
 

Match Preview
The Kennesaw State volleyball team goes for back-to-back ASUN Conference Tournament Championships, opening tournament play Friday night in a semifinal match slated for 7:30 p.m. The Owls secured a first-round bye and the No. 2 overall seed after finishing the regular season 14-2 in league play. KSU awaits the winner of Wednesday night's quarterfinal match between No. 3 Lipscomb and No. 6 North Florida.

The Bison look to return to the finals after missing the championship match last season for the first time in the last five seasons. Lipscomb has won six ASUN Tournament championships, including two of the last three. Lipscomb's only conference losses this seaosn have come at the hands of FGCU and Kennesaw State, the No. 1 and No. 2 overall seeds.

The Bisons are led by senior Carlyle Nusbaum who leads the league averaging 4.02 kills per set while logging over 300 digs on the year. 

UNF qualified for its second ever ASUN Conference Tournament with a win over North Alabama in the penultimate match of the regular season. The Ospreys only other appearance in the postseason tournament was in 2012, entering as the No. 4 seed and making it to the championship match after upsetting then No. 1 seed FGCU. UNF fell in the final to ETSU in a tight five-set match.

North Florida is led by junior Taryn Griffey. The middle blocker has done it all for the Ospreys as the only player in the conference to record over 300 kills and 100 blocks on the season.

Last Time Out
The Owls wrapped up the regular season with a 3-0 sweep at Jacksonville this past Saturday. KSU recorded a season-high .462 hitting percentage in the match, marking only the second time this season the Owls have hit above .400 in a match.

The Owls flew out of the gates in the first set taking a 6-1 lead over Jacksonville. The Dolphins chipped away at the early lead to get within one, 16-15, following a 3-0 run. 

KSU re-gained some breathing room, leading 20-16 following a 4-1 run as the two teams proceeded to trade points. The Owls eventually took the opening set, 25-21, behind a kill from Liesl Engelbrecht and a setting error committed by the Dolphins.

After the Owls took an early 5-2 lead to open the second set, Jacksonville responded to tie the set 7-7. KSU and the Dolphins went point-for-point throughout the second set, recording 13 ties and three lead changes during the back-and-forth set. KSU finally got the upper hand with a 5-0 run to earn set point, 24-19. After JU fought off two set points, Lauren Chastang put the set to rest with a kill to give KSU a 2-0 lead.

Jacksonville looked to respond in the third set, jumping out to a 5-3 lead, but the Owls flipped a switch as Dani Ballou recorded three kills and a block to help KSU go on a 6-0 run and take a 9-5 lead. 

KSU seized control from there on out building a 21-9 lead following a 7-1 run which featured back-to-back aces from Karlee Groover. The Dolphins pulled it back within 10, but KSU closed out the set on a 3-1 run capped off by a kill from Ballou to secure the set victory, 25-13, and the sweep.

Filling Up The Trophy Case
The Owls racked up six conference awards during the ASUN's annual tournament banquet. 

Lexi Broadwater highlighted the awards earning ASUN Setter of the Year accolades as well as first-team all-conference honors. Joining Broadwater as a first-team selection was Lauren Chastang. The first-team honors marked the first career all-conference accolades for both Broadwater and Chastang.

Senior Lies Engelbrecht also doubled up on the conference hardware being named second-team all-conference as well as the ASUN all-academic team. It was Engelbrecht's third-straight all-conference honor and first academic honor after maintaining a 3.86 GPA in psychology.

Rounding out the awards for KSU was freshman Dani Ballou who was unanimously voted to the leagues all-freshmen team after logging 175 total kills on the year.

Tournament History
This is the fourth-straight season the Owls have secured a spot in the ASUN Conference Tournament. KSU has reached the championship match two of the last three years, earning a first-round bye in the last two seasons.

KSU's championship title last season was the first in program history, defeating FGCU in the final, 25-23, 25-22, 25-17. Overall, the Owls are 4-6 all-time in the conference tournament, earning their four victories over the last three seasons. 

20-20 Vision
With KSU's most recent win, the Owls have earned a program-record 23 wins this season. KSU set the previous record last year after finishing the season 21-5 overall. This is the first time in program history KSU has had back-to-back 20 win seasons.

Since 2015, KSU has recorded at least 18 wins each season, going 81-30 overall in that span.

The Owls 44 wins over the last two years is nearly as many wins as the first four years of the volleyball program combined. 

The Block Is Hot
As a team, the Owls have been huge at the net this season recording 268 total blocks to break the all-time single-season record. That mark is good enough for second in the conference and 33rd in the NCAA. Six players have recorded 30 or more blocks on the year, four with 50 or more. 

Sophomore Quin Sutphin and senior Liesl Engelbrecht have been the driving force behind the Owls production, combining for half of KSU's total blocks on the year (135). Sutphin (117) and Engelbrecht (112) rank second and fourth, respectively, in the ASUN for total blocks. 

Sutphin and Engelbrecht are the second and third players, respectively, in history to hit the century mark for blocks in a single-season. This is the first time in program history the Owls have had two players with over 100 blocks in a single-season.

Sutphin broke the single-season record for blocks, recording six blocks against Lipscomb to bring her season total to 114. Engelbrecht needs only one more block to tie the previous record of 113. 

This season, Sutphin and Engelbrecht became the first and second Owls in history to record a double-double with blocks and kills. Both instances came against Lipscomb with Sutphin recording 11 kills and 12 blocks in Nashville and Engelbrecht logging 12 kills and 10 blocks in the Owls most recent match against the Bisons.

Sydni Shelton (74), Lauren Chastang (56) and Lexi Broadwater (47) have all stepped their games up this year, recording the highest season block totals in their career. Broadwater recently set a new career-high with five blocks against Lipscomb.

Killing The Game
After being resigned to the back row against NJIT, Sophomore Lauren Chastang has returned with a vengeance, recording double-digit kills in five of the last six matches with three double-doubles in that span.

Chastang recorded her 14th double-double of the season in KSU's recent match against Lipscomb with 13 kills and 13 digs. Chastang has recorded 10 or more kills in 25 of KSU's 29 matches this year.

With her four digs against NJIT earlier this year, Chastang became the fifth player in program history to record over 300 kills and 200 digs in a single season. She currently ranks third in the ASUN with 385 total kills and is one of three players in the league with over 350 kills and 250 digs.

Chastang currently ranks tied for third on the all-time single-season kills list, needing 18 moe kills to move to second.

A Grand Celebration
Senior Sydni Shelton moved one step closer to history with seven kills in KSU's season finale at Jacksonville. Shelton has recorded 996 kills over her four-year career as an Owl. She needs four kills in the next match to become just the fourth Owl in history to record over 1,000 kills in their career. 

She currently ranks second on the team and ninth in the ASUN with 265 kills this season. At the moment, Shelton is averaging 2.41 kills per set and 9.1 kills per match.

Do You Need Assistance?
This year's ASUN Setter of the Year, junior Lexi Broadwater has been a beast all season long for the Owls.

The Fayetteville, Ga., native ranks fifth in the NCAA with 1,245 total assists this season. Only two other players in the ASUN have recorded over 1,000 assists this year with UNF's Madilyn McCarty ranking second with 1,014

Broadwater is just the fifth Owl in history to reach the century mark in a single-season. With 51 assists in KSU's recent match against Lipscomb, she set a new single-season record for assists with 1,206. 

Her current clip of 11.32 assists per set ranks 15th in the NCAA. That mark would also make her the first Owl in history with a single-season assists per set average above 11. With 1,333 career assists, Broadwater already ranks fourth on the all-time career assists record list.

Ace In The Hole
With her sole ace against FGCU, Lexi Broadwater tied the KSU single-season record of 37 set by Kristi Piedimonte in 2014. She ranks third in the ASUN and 66th in the NCAA for total aces.

As a team, KSU leads the conference and ranks 28th in the nation with 165 total aces on the year. The Owls have logged five or more aces in 17 matches with 10 or more in four matches. 

KSU's 165 aces on the year is a single-season record. Eight Owls have recorded 10 or more aces on the year.

What's All The HullaBallou?
Freshman Dani Ballou has been a welcome addition to the KSU rotation this season. The Clearwater, Fla., native has been named to the ASUN all-freshmen team garnering two conference freshman of the week honors.

Ballou has recorded 175 kills on the year, the third most all-time by a freshman.

Stat Leaders
Kills: 385, Lauren Chastang
Assists: 1,245, Lexi Broadwater​​​​​​​
Digs: 465, Karlee Groover
Blocks: 117, Quin Sutphin​​​​​​​
Aces: 37, Lexi Broadwater​​​​​​​
Attack Percentage: .297, Sydni Shelton

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