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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Kennesaw State Volleyball nearly pulled off its first set win over Western Kentucky, falling by just two points, but the home team held on for a 1-0 lead on the way to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-12, 25-13) victory over the Owls in CUSA play on Saturday afternoon from E.A. Diddle Arena.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Owls hit just .111 for the day while committing 20 attack errors. Western Kentucky meanwhile finished with a 72.5% sideout percentage.
THE RUNDOWN – In the opening set the Owls started out with an early 3-1 edge, and were able to put enough strings of scoring plays together to stay within at least three points of the preseason favorites the entire set. The Owls closed within one at 23-22 off a WKU error, and again at 24-23 thanks to a kill from
Manu Johnsen. The next play resulted in a block and the winning set point for the Hilltoppers, for a 1-0 lead. The momentum of winning that set carried over to the next two for the home team, as they won by 13 and 12 points.
POSTGAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"That's the bar in this league. We have played them twice now and now know the level of consistency, focus and skill that we'll need to play to put ourselves in a better position if we see them again down the road.
We missed on a couple easy opportunities in set 1, and against the best team in the league, those moments kill your chances. Despite that, we still had a swing to tie the set at 24-24 but couldn't find a kill.
Unfortunately, we got served and passed off the court in sets 2 and 3 and just couldn't get anything going falling behind early in both sets.
Our team will continue to fight to improve. We've done it all year so far and I'm confident our women will keep showing up with pride and passion. Huge games coming up against Jax St and Liberty. We're not going anywhere. We're going to keep working and fighting at it."
NOTES
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Manu Johnsen led KSU with nine kills, while
Caroline Chastang was next with eight.
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Kourtney Brown led the Owls with 14 assists, while
Kaeley Walz added 12.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls come back to Kennesaw before hitting the road again for a pair of games against Jax State. The games will be played on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. (ET) and Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 4 p.m. (ET), and will be streamed on ESPN+.
