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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team made quick work of the visiting Dolphins Saturday evening, downing Jacksonville in straight sets, 25-15, 25-14, 25-16.
 
How it Happened: The Owls (14-6, 7-1) pushed their way in front early as a block from Jasmine Brown and Emma Schurfranz followed by a kill from Lauren Chastang gave KSU a 10-5 lead. KSU extended its lead over JU (7-15, 3-5) to 17-7 following a 7-1 swing that featured two kills and two blocks each for both Chastang and Quin Sutphin. The Dolphins responded with a 6-0 run of their own to cut into the Owls' lead, 17-13, but KSU closed out the set like a runaway train, scoring eight of the final 10 points.
 
After trading points to open the second set, KSU began to pull away after a kill and a block from Brown and an ace by Shelby Dennis made it 10-5. The Owls continued to pick up the tempo with four separate 3-0 runs to push their lead to 13 and earn set point 24-11. KSU dished up five aces in the second set with Dani Ballou recording four of her six kills in the set.
 
The Owls were nearly perfect in the third set, hitting .394 as a team and committing only one error. Tied 7-7 at the onset, KSU gained some space with a 6-1 run, capped off by a solo block from Madeline Johnson. The Owls pushed their lead to six points after a kill from Chastang made it 18-12. KSU closed out the set on a 5-0 run as Johnson destroyed back-to-back over passes to clinch a 25-16 set victory and the match sweep.
 
Notes: Lauren Chastang snapped her four match double-double streak, finishing with a team-high 12 kills to go along with five digs … Chastang tied her career-high with a .400 hitting percentage … Karlee Groover recorded her second straight match, seventh of the season, with over 20 digs, finishing with 22 … Jasmine Brown logged a .400 hitting percentage with five kills … appearing in just two sets, Madeline Johnson recorded six kills and a solo block … the Owls recorded nine total aces, three each from Lexi Broadwater and Jessie Cohen … KSU hit .289 for the match, compared to .042 for Jacksonville.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On the team's performance…
"Really happy with our team's consistency today. We had one stretch in the second set when I thought we had a lot of brain farts and made some silly errors, but other than that we were just really consistent and aggressive at the right times. It was a really good mature performance. Jacksonville was up and down a little bit, but we were just really steady."
 
On the Owls' aggressive serving…
"That's kind of been a theme of our team this year. We have some kids that are going back there, you know Chastang is ripping her jump serve, but we have some other people who are hitting some really aggressive jump floats and just going after it. We are taking some errors, but we are also making some people pass the ball off the net, getting some defensive opportunities because of that. We are taking some more risks this year."
 
On Lauren Chastang…
"Chastang has been playing the highest level of volleyball, for sure, this year that she has in her career and it's not just the attack, tonight she was really good on the attack, but she also passed it very well, she served it very well, she had a bunch of nice blocking moves. She is just playing the game at a high level in all six positions which is something that, until this year, we had seen flashes of, but she has really gone to the next level. She has worked her butt off to do it, she is just the best kid in the world. She's awesome."
 
Up Next: The Owls hit the road for the weekend, traveling to North Alabama Friday (Oct. 25) followed by North Florida Sunday (Oct. 27).