Follow KSU Volleyball on Social - Twitter | Instagram
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kennesaw State not only avenged its 2021 ASUN Semifinal loss, the sixth-seeded Owls pulled off a rare 3-0 season sweep as they knocked off third-seed Jacksonville State in a five-set thriller (25-19, 17-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-10) in the quarterfinal round of the ASUN Volleyball Tournament, held this year at Allen Arena on the campus of Lipscomb.
JSU finished its season at 24-6, with exactly half of its total losses on the season coming at the hands of the Owls, who improved to 18-9 and advance to the ASUN semifinal round for the eighth-straight time. KSU will now play on Friday at 5 p.m. (ET) against second-seed FGCU in the semifinal round, with the winner advancing to the championship game on Saturday.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Owls dominated the play at the end, holding a commanding 14-5 edge on team blocks. That was the most blocks by KSU since posting 15 on Oct. 31, 2021 in a win at Liberty.
OWL OF THE GAME: One day after earning ASUN Freshman of the Year accolades, Manu Johnsen put on an offensive show with her third 20+ kill performance of the season. She led all players with 24, which ties for the most ever by an Owl in ASUN Tournament play. Her .423 hitting percentage (24K-2E-52TA) was both a new career-high and a game-high as well. Johnsen added 11 digs as well for a double-double.
SET ONE: The Owls broke open a tie game with a run of five straight points. Three different Owls posted a kill during that stretch, with
Dani Ballou giving KSU an 18-13 advantage, while Johnsen provided the winning set point off a kill.
SET TWO: KSU started off hot with four of the first five points of the set. The Gamecocks showed it would be a different story then the first two meetings though, using an 8-1 run to go ahead by a 12-7 margin. The Owls came no closer than two the rest of the way as JSU would knot the match at 1-1.
SET THREE: This time JSU used the momentum of their set win to storm out of the games with six of the first seven points for a 6-1 advantage. Then came one of the two biggest key stretches of the afternoon for KSU, as the Owls would rally to score 12 of the next 16 points, turning a five-point deficit into a three-point advantage at 13-10. KSU never gave up the lead and held on for a 25-20 win.
SET FOUR: KSU went up 5-1 early, and again JSU rallied, to tie the set at 6-6. It was tied against several times, the last at 15-15, until four straight Gamecock points pushed the edge back to JSU. The Gamecocks closed out with the final three points to tie the match at 2-2.
SET FIVE: Both teams matched each other point for point for the first 20 points of the final set. But a kill from Johnson to first tie the set at 10-10, was also the start of a run of six straight points by the Owls, which included three kills from Johnsen.
QUOTEABLE: "Couldn't be prouder of that gutsy performance by our group. This time of year you gotta let it all out there and go for it, and win or lose that's what we did tonight. A big time, aggressive serving run from
Addi Goede at the very end of set five and a huge block from Emma (Schurfranz) and Jasmine (Brown) put an exclamation point on that win."
– KSU head coach Keith Schunzel
NOTES:
-Friday's semifinal is a rematch of the 2021 spring ASUN tournament semifinal, won by FGCU in Kennesaw by a 3-0 score. All-time KSU is 4-4 in the semifinal round of the ASUN Tournament.
-The Owls avenged their 3-2 loss to JSU in the 2021 tournament. Combined with its regular season sweep of the Gamecocks, KSU outscored JSU by a 9-2 margin in sets this season, which included a run of seven straight.
-Ballou also finished in double-figures for kills for KSU with 11.
Shelby Dennis led the Owls with 18 digs and added nine assists, while
McKinley Ferguson notched a double-double of 41 assists and 16 digs.
-Brown posted a strong game for KSU, with nine kills and a team-high seven blocks.
-
Claire Parsons added six blocks and moved into sole possession of second place at KSU in career blocks with 257.
-Though KSU finished the match with a lower hitting percentage (.245 to .251), the Owls limited JSU to a .000 in the fifth set, allowing just five kills along with five errors.
