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TROY, Ala. – Kennesaw State Volleyball came away from the Troy Invitational with a split weekend after falling 3-1 (18-25, 25-18, 18-25, 17-25) at the host Troy Trojans on Saturday afternoon in Trojan Arena. The loss dropped KSU to 3-6 on the year while Troy moved to 5-3.
STAT OF THE GAME: KSU hit under .200 in both the third and fourth set (.120 and .238), while the Trojans hit at least .350 in both sets.
THE RUNDOWN – Neither team was hitting well in the first set, and both finished under .100. The Owls led the majority of the opening half, and were up 15-12 before the Trojans started their rally with a 4-0 burst to take the lead. KSU went back up 17-16, but the Trojans scored nine of the final 10 points to close out the set win. Set two was a different story for KSU as it dominated right from the start, going up 16-6 and leading by as many as 12 points before claiming the 25-18 win. Just as in the first set, the Owls led for most of the first half of the third, continuing their momentum from the set two win. A service ace from
Kourtney Brown gave the Owls a 13-9 edge, before Troy countered with five straight points. Kills from
Maggie Butkovich and
Kiernan Stamey put KSU back ahead 15-14. The set and match quickly changed however with the following point, as the Trojans scored three straight, part of a 11-3 run by the hosts to end the set and take a 2-1 lead. In the fourth set, it was a tie score at 9-9 after a kill from Stamey when the Trojans scored five of the next six for a 14-10 edge. The Owls came no closer than three the rest of the way.
POSTGAME QUOTES
KSU HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"Our stretches of solid, consistent, high-level play are definitely getting longer, which is good news. Sometimes losing makes you feel like everything is going wrong, but there's tons of good stuff. We are getting better, for sure.
But one of the main challenges with our team right now is how we respond to mistakes, both emotionally and skill wise on ensuing plays. And then having the ability to bounce back and not shut down after those couple of bad plays happen.
We showed some real immaturity as a team today in the 3rd set when the match was tied 1-1 and we were up midway through that set. That was THE critical juncture of that match. A couple bad plays happened and the wheels fell off. We'll need to be more mature and respond better moving forward to have a chance to beat good teams like Troy. They have a lot of veterans, they're well coached and they have two dynamic pin attackers who really dominated that game."
NOTES
-
Manu Johnsen posted her second straight double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs. Freshman
Kiernan Stamey was next with nine kills.
-Both
Kourtney Brown and
Kaeley Walz had 19 assists for the Owls.
-Leading KSU in digs was
Leah Freeman with 11, while
Olivia Burrage had a team-best seven total blocks.
-
Kaeley Walz led KSU with 31 assists, and Freeman had a team-high 23 digs.
NEXT TIME OUT: The Owls will play a pair of games in at Clemson next week to close out non-conference play. First KSU will face the host Clemson Tigers on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m., before facing Furman in a neutral contest on Friday, Sept. 20, also at 2 p.m.
