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FORT MYERS, Fla. – 371 days.
That's how long the wait has been for the Kennesaw State volleyball team. The Owls sat on the Convocation Center Floor one year ago, watching FGCU celebrate its 2018 ASUN Volleyball Championship and that memory has burned a hole ever since.
Well today, the Owls exorcised those demons.
"It's truly hard to find the words at this point to describe how we're all feeling," said Schunzel. "I am oozing with pride and pure joy of what our program just did. We had so many reasons to lose that match and our team just kept fighting over and over and over again."
The highly touted Eagles came into Saturday's match as the No. 1 seed and overall favorite to repeat as champions, dropping only eight sets in conference play, four by the Owls. Squaring off for the third straight year in the conference championship, the Owls and Eagles are no strangers to big time showdowns. The two teams split the season series, winning each on their respective home courts.
With FGCU an undefeated 13-0 in Alico Arena this year, KSU had its work cut out for it.
"My heart hurts for FGCU's players and coaches who played an incredible match and had a wonderful season and deserved to win that match as much as we did," continued Schunzel.
Trailing at the onset, the Owls rallied for a 5-0 run, featuring back-to-back aces from Lauren Chastang to pull ahead 7-4. FGCU clawed its way back to tie the match, 12-12, as the two teams showed why they were the top teams in the league, going point-for-point deep into the set.
The Owls finally gained some breathing room, 20-18, thanks to a quick 3-0 run featuring two kills form Dani Ballou sandwiched around an ace from Lexi Broadwater, the fifth ace of the set by KSU. After holding off FGCU to earn set point, the Eagles rattled off the next three straight to retake the lead 25-24. Undeterred, the Owls responded with a block from Chastang and Sutphin to open a 3-0 run to close the door on FGCU and win the opening set 27-25.
The Owls continued to push the tempo in the second set with four straight kills to lead 9-4. KSU pushed its lead to as high as eight points, 14-6, hitting .667 at one point. Florida native Ballou and Sutphin combined for nine of the Owls 19 kills in the set as KSU raced to set point 24-19. The Eagles attempted to rally with a quick 3-0 run, but the Sutphin shut the door to give the Owls a 2-0 lead.
The Owls were riding high out of the intermission, but FGCU would not go down without a fight utilizing a 5-1 swing to lead 9-6. KSU battled back to retake the lead 14-13 as the two squads once again traded blows. Tied 23-23, FGCU closed out the set with four of the final five points to send the match into a fourth set.
Momentum at their back, the Eagles jumped out to a 4-1 lead to open the fourth set before the Owls responded with a 5-1 run, capped off by an ace from Jessie Cohen to pull ahead 9-8. The two squads traded runs before back-to-back kills from Jasmine Brown, who recorded five kills on five swings in the set, gave KSU the 21-19 advantage. With the Owls leading by two and on the verge of closing out the match, 23-21, the Eagle block came alive. FGCU recorded three blocks in the final minutes of the set to record five of the final six points and send the match into a fifth set.
Keeping with the theme, the two squads fought tooth-and-nail to close out the match with FGCU holding an 8-7 lead as the two teams switched sides. Trailing 10-8, back-to-back kills from Chastang, who had six in the final set alone, put the Owls back on level terms, only to fall behind again 12-10. Chastang would not be denied, putting the match on her shoulders and recording three more kills to give the Owls set point 14-13.
After a confirmed challenge call kept the ball in KSU's hands, the Owls called on Ballou, who would not disappoint, recording her 22nd kill, a career-high, to secure the championship.
"Dani Ballou taking that huge swing on match point, in that moment, after getting blocked on match point in last year's final is one of the most wonderful and proud moments of my coaching career," said Schunzel.
KSU got some tremendous performances from all over as Chastang (20 kills, 12 digs) and Broadwater (69 assists, 13 digs) each recorded double-doubles. KSU logged a season-high 102 digs as five Owls finished in double-figures led by Karlee Groover with 28 followed by a career-high 24 from Shelby Dennis. Four Owls recorded double-digit kills as Sutphin finished with 18 to go along with seven blocks and Brown logged 13 kills hitting .320.
"There were so many fantastic individual performances tonight I wouldn't even know where to start," said Schunzel. "Our team and coaches just kept believing. We kept battling and kept going for it and that makes me so incredibly proud as a head coach."
As a team, the Owls out-dug FGCU 102-80, while out-killing the Eagles 78-56.
The Owls will now anxiously await to see where they will end up on Dec. 1 during the NCAA Selection show, as they head to their second NCAA Tournament in three years.
