Northern Ky. NKU 5-6,0-0 Horizon

Kennesaw St. KennSt 7-3,0-0 ASUN

Northern Ky. NKU

5-6,0-0 Horizon

Final

Sep. 15, 2023

Kennesaw St. KennSt

7-3,0-0 ASUN

Set Scores
Team	1	2	3	4	5	F
Northern Ky. NKU	19	25	21	25	7	(2)
Kennesaw St. KennSt	25	18	25	22	15	(3)

Summary
Box Score

Elissa Windsor

Game Recap: Volleyball | 9/15/2023 11:07:00 PM | Mark Wasik

Another Five-Set Victory For the Owls!

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CINCINNATI – Away from home for the third weekend this season, Kennesaw State volleyball continues to show it doesn't matter where they play as the Owls claimed their third five-set victory of the season, 3-2 (25-19, 18-25, 25-21, 22-25, 15-7) over Northern Kentucky on Friday night at the Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier University. With the neutral court victory, the Owls improved to 7-3 on the season, while NKU dropped to 5-6 overall.

STAT OF THE GAME: In the decisive fifth set, the Owls hit a blistering .650, with 13 kills and no errors off just 20 total attempts.

OWL OF THE GAME: Lanie Vantrease continues to shine in her senior season, as she notched a career-high 17 kills while adding three blocks. She finished the night with a .275 hitting percentage (17K-6E-40TA).

THE RUNDOWN – The Owls took a 1-0 lead after using a late 7-1 run to take a commanding 24-16 advantage before Emma Schurfranz finished things off with a kill. The second set went to the Norse thanks to an early 6-0 run that put them up 13-5. The third set could have gone either way with both teams making big runs. NKU held a late lead at 21-20 when the Owls reeled off five unanswered points, with the final three coming off three consecutive KSU blocks. Set four was just as tight, and the Owls were within a point at 23-22 before NKU scored two straight to tie the match at 2-2. In the fifth and deciding set, the Owls held a slight 5-4 lead when three straight kills, one from Olivia Burrage and two from Schurfranz, began a game-ending 10-3 run for KSU. Another 3-0 runs, with the last two coming from Claire Parsons, sealed the victory for the Owls.

POST-GAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"Happy we pulled that one out. We did some really nice stuff early in all phases of the game. But then we let our foot off the gas in set 2 and we let them get some momentum. NKU got some rhythm going and from there on out it was an up and down battle the rest of the match. I'm really proud of our effort in set 5. We played super clean, played really hard on defensive and controlled the decisive set."

NOTES
-This marked the Owls third five-set match of the season. KSU is 3-0 this season when going to a fifth set.
-The Owls improved to 3-4 all-time against NKU, though this was the first meeting since the 2014 season.
-KSU finished with advantages in points (83-68), kills (67-51), blocks (11-8) and digs (71-65).
-The Owls posted a .246 hitting percentage (67K-25E-171TA), while NKU was limited to just .169 (51K-24E-160TA).
-Schurfranz led all players with a season-high 20 kills, while Maggie Butkovich set a new career-high with 10 kills while playing in her hometown city.
-McKinley Ferguson notched a double-double with 54 assists and 11 digs. This marked the third time in the last four games she's posted at least 50 assists in a match.
-Olivia Burrage paced the squad with nine blocks, while another Cincinnati native, Shelby Dennis, notched a team-high 21 digs.