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BOZEMAN, Mont. – A sluggish start for Kennesaw State on offense was too much to overcome, as the Owls' (2-1) suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday night by a 3-1 (21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 23-25) score at Montana State (3-0) in the final game of the Bobcat Blackridge Invite.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Owls' downfall was their errors in the first two sets, as they finished with seven in the first set and eight in the second. KSU settled down for set three, and had just seven errors in the final two sets but they couldn't overcome the 2-0 deficit. The Owls would suffer the loss despite finishing the game with more points (73-64), kills (59-57), aces (6-4), blocks (8-3), assists (57-52) and digs (60-41).
OWL OF THE GAME: Sophomore Manu Johnsen paced all players with 20 kills, while she also added seven digs.
THE RUNDOWN: The Owls were tied with Montana State at 11-11 in the first set, but would give up a 5-0 run and trailed the rest of the way. KSU did close within 18-17, and it was a 23-21 contest when the Bobcats scored the last two to claim the set and a 1-0 lead. Set two was just as close, with the Owls within one twice late, including at 20-19 and 21-20. A 3-0 run put Montana State up 24-20 and the would hold on for a 2-0 lead. The Owls came out strong in set three, leading almost the entire way and scoring six of the last eight points for a 25-20 win. Set four could have gone either way, as it was tied at 19-19 while KSU trailed 21-20, 22-21, 23-22 and 24-23. The Owls looked to have tied it again at 24-24, but came up just short on the play to drop the set and the match.
POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"What a volleyball match that was. Great environment with two really good teams who played their guts out. Congrats to Matt and his staff for getting their players ready to compete like they did. I thought Montana State played low error ball for the first two sets and we just didn't pressure them enough with our serve, nor could we quite find our rhythm offensively to get them on their heels. The match flipped in sets 3 and 4 when we started attacking more aggressively and making some big time transition plays. Kudos to Kourtney for coming in and helping change the flow of our offense, and the entire match. I'm really proud of our whole team for how hard we played tonight. We played really, really hard and represented Kennesaw State incredibly well. And even though we lost, we not only played hard, but we played quite well for a lot of that match. The margin on the road against a good team is just very thin and hopefully, among other lessons, we learned that tonight. I am bummed tonight because that's a match we could have won, but I'm truly fired up about what this season has in store for this team, and we'll get there one day at a time."
NOTES
-Joining Johnson in double-digits for kills was Emma Schurfranz with 11, to go along with five kills.
-Freshman Kourtney Brown paced the Owls with 31 assists, while Claire Parsons had a team-high four blocks and Shelby Dennis finished with 19 digs.
NEXT TIME OUT: KSU again will be on the road, this time in the Golden Eagle Invitational at Tennessee Tech on Sept. 1-2. The Owls will open play in the tournament on Friday, Sept. 1 with a 2 pm contest against Cincinnati.
