MOBILE, Ala. – Kennesaw State volleyball rallied from a two-set deficit to force a deciding fifth set Friday night before falling to host South Alabama 3-2 (20-25, 15-25, 25-21, 25-23, 12-15) on the opening day of the South Alabama Invitational. The Owls moved to 5-2 on the season with the setback, with both losses coming on the road.
OWL OF THE GAME: Mobile native Haley Patterson had a big night in her return home, posting a match-high 19 kills while hitting .261. The senior also added four digs and an ace.
STAT OF THE GAME: South Alabama posted game-highs in both service aces with 13 and blocks with 12, while the Owls finished with just five and seven, respectively.
THE RUNDOWN
South Alabama claimed the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-15, before the Owls came out of the break with a different level of aggression. KSU raced out to an 11-4 advantage in the third and held off a late Jaguar rally for a 25-21 victory.
The fourth was tight throughout before Patterson's service ace gave the Owls a 15-14 advantage. KSU later pushed the lead to 21-18, and an Ashlyn Anderson kill brought up set point at 24-22. South Alabama pulled within one before a service error gave the Owls the 25-23 win and sent the match to a fifth set.
KSU held a 7-6 advantage midway through the deciding frame before South Alabama moved ahead 9-7. The Owls answered to tie the score at nine, and Patterson followed with a kill for a 10-9 lead. The Jaguars responded with three straight points and held off KSU down the stretch for the 15-12 victory.
POSTGAME QUOTES – HEAD COACH KEITH SCHUNZEL
"Great to see us fight our way back in sets 3 and 4. I wish we had the defensive intensity and that same aggression in sets 1 and 2, and maybe that's a different match. But this team needs to learn these lessons and going through extremely competitive and chippy matches like that is how that happens.
"I thought for the most part we did a nice job offensively making good decisions and figuring out how to score the ball. Kaeley Walz came in and ran good offense in sets 3-5. Olivia Burrage scored the ball well tonight and I thought Ashlyn Anderson was really aggressive all night which is great to see.
"Our back court defense continues to hold us back. So we'll keep working and hopefully learning and see if we can learn to read the game better and figure out a way to dig more balls."
NOTES
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Patterson's 19 kills were a match high, while her 20.5 points also led all players.
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Burrage finished with 10 kills while hitting .389 and added a team-high five blocks.
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Anderson posted seven kills, while Ashley Theiss added six kills without an attack error for a .316 hitting percentage.
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Kaeley Walz finished with a team-high 26 assists to go along with five digs and three blocks.
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Freshman Alexis Sowers paced the Owls with 14 digs.
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KSU finished with seven blocks and hit .232 for the match.
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The Owls have now played three five-set matches through their first seven contests.
NEXT TIME OUT
Kennesaw State continues play at the South Alabama Invitational on Saturday against Tulane in a 3 p.m. match, before closing the weekend on Sunday against in-state rival Georgia in a 12 p.m. contest.
