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KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State Volleyball completed its redemption weekend with flying colors, claiming its third straight sweep with a 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 25-20) victory over North Florida in Atlantic Sun Conference action Sunday from the Convocation Center. That made it two straight 3-0 victories over teams the Owls had lost to on the road earlier in the month, following Friday's 3-0 sweep of Jacksonville. With their third straight win and sixth in the last seven games, the Owls moved into a tie for fourth place in the ASUN at 7-5 (14-9 overall). UNF meanwhile dropped to 13-13, 6-6 in league play.
OWL OF THE GAME: Senior
Emma Schurfranz shined on Sunday afternoon, posting game-highs of 15 kills, a .591 hitting percentage (15K-2E-22TA), and a career-high six aces, which also ties for the fourth-most ever in a game at KSU and also tied for the most in a three-set match in program history (along with Bri Becerra against North Alabama on Oct. 25, 2019).
STAT OF THE GAME: For the second straight game the Owls registered an impressive hitting percentage, finishing at .370 (48K-14E-92TA) for the afternoon. UNF meanwhile finished with a .220 (35K-15E-91TA).
THE RUNDOWN – Though it was a sweep for KSU, it was a close battle the entire afternoon, especially in the first set where the Ospreys opened up a five-point advantage. It was a 14-9 lead when Schurfranz sparked a 5-0 run to tie the score. The match would be tied several more times, but UNF would push the lead back to 24-21. This led to the turning point of the match, as the Owls successful held off three straight set points, part of a 4-0 run. Kills from
Maggie Butkovich and Schurfranz completed the comeback for a 27-25 win. The second set again saw the Ospreys take a lead, this time at 12-9. The Owls took over, scoring 12 of the next 16 points for a 21-16 edge and they didn't look back. In the final set, after UNF went up 9-6, the Owls reeled off a 6-1 run, that featured five kills and an ace from Schurfranz for a 12-10 lead, and they never trailed again.
POSTGAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"Different kind of match than on Friday in style of opponent and how the game went, but equally impressive from our group. We worked through some adversity today, we stepped up in some big moments and we competed really hard for three straight sets. It was a joy to watch Emma compete at that level today. She dominated the match from the service line and with her aggressive attacking. When she frees her mind like that she is capable of some ridiculously high level things. Also a shoutout to Pars (
Claire Parsons) and Liv (
Olivia Burrage) for both working really hard to get available to attack in the middle and be ultra-aggressive to terminate. Also thought Kourtney (Brown) distributed very well today and our smalls battled through some tough serving of UNF, and especially did a nice job handling the ball out of system to get us some big swings when we weren't passing or digging to the net. Important and solid win for our group as we're in the stretch run and seeds are up for grabs."
NOTES
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Manu Johnsen also posted double-figures in kills with 11, and one was of four players with a team-high six digs.
-Brown paced KSU with 37 assists, and Parsons had four blocks to lead the Owls.
-The win avenged KSU's 3-0 loss at North Florida on Oct. 6.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls will begin a stretch of three straight on the road, starting with a Friday, Nov. 3 contest at FGCU in Fort Myers, Fla., in a 7 p.m. contest. That will be followed by a Saturday, Nov. 4 match at Stetson in Deland, Fla., with a 6 p.m. start.
