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KENNESAW, Ga. – After dropping the opening set, the Kennesaw State volleyball responded in a huge way to take the next three sets and defeat North Alabama, 23-25, 25-20, 25-14, 25-13, Friday night at the Convocation Center.
 
Three Owls finished the match with double-digit kills, led by Dani Ballou with 17. She and Quin Sutphin, who logged 14 kills, finished the match hitting over .500 on the night. Adding to the night's stellar performances, both Lauren Chastang (16 kills, 13 digs) and Lexi Broadwater (46 assists, 13 digs) recorded double-doubles.
 
How it Happened: The Lions (3-16, 1-5) came out ready to fight, answering each run by the Owls (12-5, 5-0) to keep the set even. UNA earned its first lead following a 4-0 run to pull ahead 12-11. The Lions pushed their lead to as high as six points, 21-15, following yet another 4-0 run, eventually earning set point, 24-16. The Owls refused to go down quietly as a kill from Madeline Johnson sparked a 7-0 run for KSU to pull within one, 24-23. After calling a timeout, UNA finally squashed KSU's comeback attempt with a kill.
 
North Alabama looked to keep the momentum rolling in the second set with a 7-1 swing to lead 12-8. KSU responded with a 4-0 run to put the set back on level terms 12-12. After trading points, the Owls finally pulled in front, 22-19, following a 4-0 run which featured two aces from Shelby Dennis. KSU closed the set out with back-to-back-to-back kills from Jasmine Brown, Sutphin and Chastang to even the match at one set a piece.
 
It was another tight set to start the third as both squads went point-for-point tied at 10-10. The appearance of Katie Crocker, her first of the season, then seemed to bring some energy to the Owls as they rattled off the next four straight points to lead 14-11. UNA recorded only three more points in the set as the Owls outscored the Lions 15-3 to win the set 25-14. KSU hit an unprecedented .545 in the third set committing only two errors. The Owls also dominated from the service line with seven aces in the set thanks to four straight from Chastang.
 
That energy carried over into the fourth set as KSU jumped out to a 5-3 lead following a 5-0 run. The Owls pushed their lead to seven points, 13-6, behind a 6-0 run which featured three kills form Ballou. After trading 3-0 runs, KSU picked up the tempo with a 6-0 run capped off by another ace from Dennis. KSU finally closed out the set with kills from Chastang and Sutphin before a ball handling error clinched the set 25-13.
 
Notes: The Owls tied the single-match record for aces, set earlier this year at Furman, with 14 … Lauren Chastang and Shelby Dennis tied their career-highs with six and three aces, respectively, followed by Karlee Groover with two … Chastang recorded her ninth double-double of the year, second straight, with 16 kills and 13 digs … Lexi Broadwater earned her second double-double this season with 46 assists and 13 digs, one shy of her career-high … Dani Ballou hit a career-high .500 on the night with her 17 kills, falling two shy of her career-high … Quin Sutphin recorded her fifth straight match hitting over .400, finishing with a .579 hitting percentage … Groover was the third Owl with double-digit digs, leading the team with 18 while tying her season-high with seven assists.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On dropping the first set to UNA…
"We've had a couple games this year where you look at the record, and people from the outside go 'oh this isn't going to be a game,' and you watch film and they are in a lot of games with a lot of people. We didn't play terrible in the first set, I thought we played pretty intense, I don't think we played super clean, we made some attacking errors a couple of bad serves. They were digging us off the court and they played well. They played much better than us in the first set, so credit to them."
 
On what changed the momentum…
"We really started to establish our middle attack behind the setter, which was mostly Quin Sutphin, but Jasmine Brown had a couple, Madeline Johnson had a few. I think that really helped us because then we were scoring at a really high clip. We made a sub and put in Katie Crocker who right away had a great block touch and they tipped and rolled a ball over the net that she picked up. A couple balls had fallen earlier in the match during those situations and so she made a difference right away. I think eventually our consistency and our aggressiveness, our physicality, just won out. I'm proud of our players for just staying the course and competing in that match."
 
On KSU's tremendous serving…
"We are being very aggressive this year, probably more so than in the past, but we have a lot of players who are hitting the ball very hard and even when they are missing, they are getting good hand contact on it and they are giving us a chance. We're obviously making some errors, but we're also scoring a ton of points off the service line, whether that's aces or getting the pass off the net where we are able to dig, transition and kill it. We're giving a lot of our players the green light which, in a lot of matches, is paying off."
 
Up Next: The Owls head down to Fort Myers to square off with defending ASUN Champions FGCU in a battle for the top spot in the conference Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.