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HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team rallied from two sets down to defeat James Madison in a five-set instant classic, 19-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-11, during Friday afternoon's tournament opener.
 
How it happened: After a 5-0 run from JMU (1-3) to take a 7-5 lead in the opening set, the Owls (3-2) bounced back with a 3-0 run of its own as both squads proceeded to trade points. With the Owls holding a slim 17-16 lead, the Dukes ripped off a 9-2 run to close out the set, 25-19, and take a 1-0 lead.
 
Five of those final nine points were due to KSU errors as the Owls hit -.114 percent with seven errors in the set.
 
It was another back-and-forth start to the second set until a quick 4-0 run gave JMU a 10-7 advantage. The Owls fought back to tie the match at 14-14, but a 5-1 swing gave James Madison the edge 19-15. KSU pulled to within one, 19-18, but JMU went on to score six of the next eight points to win the set 25-20.
 
Backs against the wall, KSU fell behind early in the third set, 11-7. Trailing by four, back-to-back kills from Emma Schurfranz and Jasmine Brown sparked a 6-1 run to put the Owls in front 14-13. Trading points, KSU finally took control behind an ace and a kill from Lauren Chastang followed by two kills from Quin Sutphin to push the Owls' lead to 20-17. The Dukes managed to pull back within one, 22-21, but KSU closed it out on a 3-0 run to send the match into a fourth set.
 
The two teams traded runs in the opening minutes of the fourth set with KSU and JMU going point-for-point deep into the set. The Owls finally pulled away as a kill from Brown sparked a 7-0 run, which featured kills from Brown, Sutphin, Schurfranz, two kills from Chastang and an ace from Karlee Groover, to lead 24-17. JMU tried to rally with a quick 3-0 run, but Sutphin smashed a kill to send the match into a fifth set.
 
The Dukes took an early lead to open the final set after a 4-0 run gave them a 5-2 lead. KSU managed to fight back to tie the set at 9-9. After trading points and still deadlocked at 11-11, The Owls put the match away with a 4-0 run to cap off an incredible comeback.
 
Notes: Lauren Chastang recorded her fourth straight double-double, leading the team with 17 kills to go along with 12 digs … Lexi Broadwater logged her first double-double of the year with 38 assists and 14 digs … Four Owls recorded double-digit digs with Karlee Groover leading the team with 16 and Shelby Dennis recording 11, her second straight match with double-digit digs … Jasmine Brown set a career-high for the second straight match with 12 kills … freshman Lanie Vantrease recorded her first career kills in the match, finishing with six kills … the Owls committed seven errors throughout the final three sets, one in the fifth, compared to seven in the first set alone … JMU out-blocked KSU 17-4.
 
Quotes: Head Coach Keith Schunzel
On the difference between the first sets and the last sets…
"Credit to JMU for making things really hard for us to get into a rhythm early on in the match. We really struggled in the first two sets getting past their block and defense, and frankly we were getting out competed. The match finally changed when we started being more aggressive with our attacking and overall level of competitiveness."
 
On rallying to win in five sets…
"Down 0-2, we stayed composed and positive and started slowly working our way back into the match. It never truly clicked today but we did enough good things that we were able to pull out a great five-set win against a really good team. That is a really good sign for our team to be able to do that early in the year."
 
Up next: The Owls continue the High Point Invitational tomorrow afternoon, taking on Furman at 4:30 p.m.