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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team left it all on the floor during Thursday night's NCAA Tournament opener, matching No. 19 Western Kentucky step-for-step, but the Owls could not pull off the upset falling in straight sets, 25-23, 25-20, 25-23, in front of a record crowd at E.A. Diddle Arena.
 
How it Happened: The Hilltoppers (31-1,14-0) pulled in front 3-0 to open the match, forcing KSU (22-9,13-3) to play from behind as the two teams went point-for-point. The Owls cut the deficit to one, 10-9, but WKU answered with a 4-0 run to regain its cushion. KSU eventually clawed its way back to tie the set 19-19 following a kill from Madeline Johnson, who came in to replace an injured Quin Sutphin, and an ace from Bri Beccerra. Locked at 22-22 following back-to-back kills from Dani Ballou, WKU took the next two straight to earn set point 24-22. Ballou looked to pull the Owls back into it with a kill on the following rally, but a service error gave WKU the 25-23 set victory.  
 
The Owls came back fired up, jumping out to a 5-2 lead following a 4-0 run to open set two. After WKU tied the set at six a piece, KSU rattled off another 4-0 run capped off by two straight aces from Jessie Cohen to lead 10-6. The Hilltoppers responded with a 5-1 swing to tie it up 11-11. After going back and forth, the Owls seized control with a 5-1 run to take a 19-17 lead. WKU then kicked it into another gear, scoring eight of the next nine points to win 25-20 and take a two-set lead.
 
It was another back-and-forth battle to open the third set as the Hilltoppers maintained a slim 8-7 lead in the opening minutes. WKU then ripped off a quick 3-0 run to pull ahead 11-7 and force a timeout from the Owls. Out of the break, Katie Crocker laid down a kill to spark a 4-1 swing to get back to within one after a kill from Johnson made it 12-11. The two squads proceeded to trade runs, but KSU could not find a way to get back on level terms until finally three kills from Chastang and a WKU service error knotted it up late 22-22. The teams traded points tied 23-23 as the Owls looked to force a fourth set, but WKU would escape with the 25-23 set victory behind a service error and a block that fell just inside the line.
 
Notes: Lauren Chastang recorded her 17th double-double of the season, leading the team with 19 kills and 12 digs while hitting a career-high .630 … Dani Ballou was second on the team with nine kills … Madeline Johnson came in to record five kills and two blocks, recording a .364 hitting percentage … Lexi Broadwater logged 37 assists in the match … the Owls had eight service aces on the night, three each from Bri Becerra and Jessie Cohen and two from Karlee Groover … KSU hit over .300 in the first and third sets, but .000 in the second, finishing the match hitting.206 compared to .357 for WKU … the Hilltoppers out-blocked KSU 10-4.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On the match…
"The first thing that I want to say is how proud I am of our women. I told them in the locker room I'm not sure if we could've played any harder. We could've played a little better at times, couple key moments where we didn't execute, we got mentally a little frazzled, but that was as good of an effort, as hard of a team, as I've ever coached, and we've had some teams have played awfully hard. Just really really proud. You hurt because it's one or two points, you win set one it's a different match. One or two points in set three there at the end, but we didn't pull it out and you have to live with that. We executed a gameplan, I thought, to almost perfection and at times Western [Kentucky] was just really good and made some plays around that gameplan. It's just what good teams do. In all, there's just a lot of pride and sadness because we lose two great seniors who put their heart out on the court for this program."
 
On KSU's fight…
"There was no doubt that WKU was going to keep fighting back. You don't have the record they do, you don't have the tradition they do, you don't have a seed if you're not going to keep fighting. I'll tell you right now there was not one person in our locker room, in our huddle, that didn't expect to play that well, that didn't expect to be in that match. We play the schedule that we do out of conference for a reason, we talk like we do within our team, we train a certain way like we do for a reason and that's to get to the NCAA Tournament and win games in the NCAA Tournament. If people thought we were going to come in here and lay an egg or back down, they don't know me, they don't know our players, they don't know our program. Of course you want to win that third set, we had chances in the first set, we were down a little bit, but it was close and if we had made one or two plays maybe we're 1-0 in that match. It's tough that we couldn't push it farther than that, but I thought we played really well and certainly we can always play better."
 
Middle Blocker Madeline Johnson
On the raucous environment…
"I really think that our team thrives off the energy and the big crowds. We always want our fans to show up and bring that same kind of vibe when we are on our own home court so we were all really excited to come in and play in that area so we can keep using that momentum for ourselves."
 
Outside Hitter Lauren Chastang
On the hard fought match…
"I think even the moments when we were down by more than one point, each point was point-to-point. I think we came out and maybe surprised Western Kentucky, which that was our goal honestly. They are a very good team, we knew that, we were the underdog, we knew that. It's a huge compliment that [WKU coach Hudson} thought it was a five-set match, and we felt the same way. I think there's a lot of us that know that we left our hearts on the court and we can walk away from that and be joyful about that part. Nothing about a loss is fun, but we did leave it all out on the court."