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KENNESAW, Ga. – A parliament of tremendous performances drove the Kennesaw State volleyball team to a four-set victory, 21-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-20, over conference foe Liberty Friday night at the Convocation Center.  
 
Four Owls finished with double-digit kills as Lauren Chastang recorded her fourth straight double-double with 23 kills and 10 digs while Jasmine Brown hit a blazing .571 for 12 kills to go along with a career-high seven blocks. Defensively, Karlee Groover covered the entire floor, tying her career-high with 32 digs.
 
How it Happened: Liberty (12-8, 5-3) started the match on a 3-0 run, but the Owls (13-6, 6-2) quickly responded with their own 5-1 run to pull ahead 7-5. The two squads went point-for-point with KSU pushing its lead to three, 12-9, with kills from Brown and Chastang and an ace from Shelby Dennis. Liberty refused to go away, though, chipping away at KSU's lead and eventually pulling ahead 22-20 following three straight kills. The Owls could not seem to find their way back as the Flames closed out the set on a 6-1 run to win 25-21.
 
KSU turned it around to open the second set, jumping out to an 8-0 lead thanks to three kills each from Quin Sutphin and Chastang. Despite a 5-0 run from Liberty to cut it close, the Owls did not slow down, expanding their lead to 19-13. The Owls kept the Flames at arm's length throughout the set as Liberty never got within three points before KSU closed out the set 25-21 to even the match.
 
Keeping the momentum going into the third set, the Owls started off hot once again with an 8-2 lead. Liberty responded with a 3-0 run, but back-to-back kills from Brown halted the Flames momentum as the two teams proceeded to go back-and-forth. The Owls eventually pulled away behind a 6-0 run to stretch the score to 19-12. Chastang closed out the set with a huge swing to cap off a 3-0 run and a 25-16 victory. KSU hit .316 in the set with four Owls, Brown, Sutphin, Chastang and Dani Ballou, combining to record 19 kills, six alone from Ballou.
 
The Flames opened the final set with a 7-4 advantage before a 6-1 swing, capped off by back-to-back kills from Chastang, put the Owls in front 10-8. After exchanging points, Liberty broke away with a 7-0 run to force a timeout from KSU with the Owls trailing 16-11. Down 19-15, the Owls fought back, as a block from Ballou and Brown sparked an 8-0 run to give KSU a 23-19 lead after back-to-back aces from Lexi Broadwater. The Owls finally shut the door with a kill from Ballou and a block from Brown to win the set, 25-20, and the match.
 
Notes: Lauren Chastang tied her career-high with 23 kills, marking her fourth match this season with 20 or more kills … Chastang has now had a double-double in 11 matches, four straight … Jasmine Brown's .571 hitting percentage marked a season-high … Quin Sutphin hit over .300 (.379) for the seventh time in the last eight matches, finishing with 13 kills … Dani Ballou was the fourth Owl in double-figures with 12 kills, her third straight match … Karlee Groover tied her career-high with 32 digs to mark the sixth time this season she has logged 20 or more digs … with 1,003 career digs, Groover is now the fourth Owl in program history to record over 1,000 digs … Shelby Dennis had her seventh match this year with double-digit digs, logging 10 … Lexi Broadwater racked up 52 assists, her sixth match with 50 or more assists … as a team, the Owls recorded nine service aces, four from Chastang and three from Broadwater.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On the change after the first set…
"One of the things that we keep talking about with our group is that you just have to compete. You have to think and see the game, but really without thinking a whole lot, you react, you see what's going on and you trust your instincts and your training and you just compete. When we start competing and we play loose and free like that we are really really good, and the challenge is obviously trying to get there more than you are not and it's hard to do. It's a complicated sport, there's lots of different things involved and not everyone is going to have their best night, but as a group we just started competing at a freer level and just going after it. That doesn't mean you're not going to make mistakes, because you are, and that's what we've been talking about in the locker room and during the game. It wasn't a lot of technical stuff, just hit the ball high and hard, compete, dig it, transition hard, that's it."
 
On the difficult competition and the Owls defense…
"Liberty is awfully tough and one thing that they are is humongous at the net. They are super physical so at times their block can really change what you do. I thought there were sometimes in that match when the block got to us, but as the match went on our ball handling continued to get better and better. Karlee Groover was unreal tonight in the back row, passing, digging, just running the show back there. I thought in the fourth set, you know Lexi [Broadwater] had a great serving run there at the end, but in general our pressure, just how hard we were playing, competing, how well we were digging and handling the ball, really got to them and they started to kind of spray their pass and get out of system. Proud of our girls. That's a good team. Liberty is a really good team as evidenced by their record, they beat FGCU in the first game if the conference. Really proud of what our team did tonight."
 
On Jasmine Brown and Dani Ballou…
"You don't want to take Quin Sutphin and Lauren Chastang for granted, typically they have been putting up huge numbers for us, and they need to. Jasmine Brown and Dani Ballou, when they are good like that, it really spreads us out and we are awfully good. Really proud of them."
 
Up Next: It's a quick turnaround for the Owls as they host Jacksonville Saturday night at 5 p.m.