Follow KSU Volleyball - Twitter | Instagram
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Kennesaw State volleyball split a pair of matches on day one of the Golden Eagle Invitational, falling in a hard fought battle to Cincinnati 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 16-25, 21-25) before claiming its first road win of the season, 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 25-16) over the host Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles on Friday from the Eblen Center.
GAME ONE RECAP – KSU (2-2) looked strong in the opening set, hitting at a .382 rate on the way to the three-point win. The Bearcats (3-1) bounced back strong in set two, hitting .500 and committing just one error total. The Owls fell behind big in set three as well, leaving KSU to need a four set rally just to keep the match alive. KSU looked on pace to do just that, as the Owls held a 20-19 lead after a kill from Emma Schurfranz. However, Cincinnati would score six of the final seven points to hold off the comeback and escape with the victory.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Owls hit under .200 in both sets three and four, and finished the match at .243 (50K-16E-140TA). Cincinnati meanwhile was at .316 for the game and posted 67 total kills.
POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"The challenge for our team isn't our ability to play at a high level. We can do a lot of things really, really well. The challenge for us is to play at a high level for longer and longer stretches. As we continue to string together cleaner volleyball for more of the match, these will start to turn our way. Cincy's backrow and passers responded in a big way in sets two and three, which in turn got their setter and middles connecting and while we tried a bunch of different things, we had no answer for their middles. Combined 40 kills hitting over .500 is a tough number to swallow. But that's on us as coaches and on our players to change that either with our serve, our block, our defenders, or a combination of all. We played a good enough 4th set to push it to five, but they made a couple big plays late and we were unable to. That's volleyball."
NOTES
-Manu Johnsen led the Owls with 18 kills while Lanie Vantrease added 10.
-McKinley Ferguson had 34 assists and nine digs, while Ferguson and Claire Parsons both finished for the team lead in blocks with five. Shelby Dennis paced KSU with 22 digs.
-The Owls did hold a 9-5 edge on blocks, but posted just three total service aces.
-This was the first-ever meeting between KSU and Cincinnati.
GAME TWO RECAP – The Owls (3-2) fell behind 22-15 late in the opening set before pulling off a a match changing 9-0 run. Three huge blocks, all from Olivia Burrage, sparked the run, and KSU would score nine of the final 10 points of the set for a 25-23 win. It was nearly a repeat situation in the second set, as KSU fell behind by a 21-13 margin before scoring eight of the next nine points to make it a 22-21 contest. This time the Golden Eagles (2-3) were able to hold on for the win. The Owls quickly took back control of the match though, going up 15-8 on the way to a six-point set win, while the Owls were never threatened in the fourth set.
OWL OF THE GAME: Johnson posted her first double-double of the year with 17 kills and 13 digs, while also adding three total blocks.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Owls recorded a season-high 13 blocks and held the home team to just a .103 hitting percentage (48K-32E-156TA).
POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"Proud of our team. Long day with two tough matches. We're learning about ourselves and improving which are both important things at this point of the season. Tennessee Tech came ready to play the first two sets, but credit to our team for competing at a higher level and finding our rhythm to control sets three and four and finish the match. I thought Shelby Dennis led really well tonight, made a bunch of plays and gave us a ton of great out of system chances with her second ball setting."
NOTES
-Ferguson also posted a double-double thanks to 37 assists and 15 digs.
-Four Owls total posted double-digits in digs, led by Dennis' 16.
-KSU held the Golden Eagles under .160 in all four sets.
-Burrage, a redshirt-freshman, had an impressive nine blocks in the contest, which ranks as the fifth-most ever in a four-set match in KSU history,
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls close out play in the Golden Eagle Invitational on Saturday with an 11:30 am match against East Tennessee State on ESPN+.
