By Daniel Miller (Staff Writer)
Photo Courtesy of KSUOwls.com
Kennesaw State’s volleyball team opened up conference play with a strong showing, defeating the USC Upstate 3-2 on the road Saturday.
Sophomore Kelly Marcinek tied a school record with 24 kills, while freshman Kristi Piedimonte posted a double-double with 57 assists and 12 digs. Katarina Morton racked up 30 digs, and Anaiah Boyer and Ria Ridley posted 14 and 13 kills, respectively.
“This was certainly a step forward for our program,” KSU head coach Keith Schunzel said.
The decisive set saw a series of rallies from both sides.
The Owls had a 6-2 advantage before the Spartans rallied off five straight points to regain the lead. With KSU trailing 9-7, senior Ria Ridley started the rally with consecutive kills, before Marcinek came in after a short rest and had four kills in a row to give the Owls the 15-14 lead. Ridley then checked back into the game and clinched it with the decisive kill, and the Owls walked out with the win.
KSU moves to 7-8, but more importantly opens conference play 1-0 with a win over the Spartans for the second straight season.
“At times, we played as well as we’ve played all year, and at times we played very average,” Schunzel said.“But our team stuck together throughout the match and kept a positive attitude and found a way to win a league match on the road, which is always hard to do.”
Winning the first set has not much of a problem for the Owls, but Saturday it proved to be a challenge.
KSU led early, 6-3, before the Spartans stormed back with eight points in a row. The Owls were able to trim the deficit to two at 14-16, but then another 6-0 run gave the Spartans the first set.
The Owls showed they had a short memory, responding by winning sets two and three.
Trailing 9-6 in the second set, the Owls fought back to tie it at 14-14, on an ace from freshman Alex Huber. USC Upstate also contributed to its own undoing with numerous attack errors, which fittingly was how the last points were scored for both team.
Ridley had two points in the closing moments that saw the USC Upstate lead trimmed to 23-22, but then the Owls returned the favor with two to take the lead. A last second substitution of Hoyer for Chade Martin proved to be pivotal, as Martin got the go ahead kill for KSU.
The third set started in a similar fashion, as both teams failed to pull away from one another early.
KSU and USC Upstate were deadlocked at 8-8 before KSU took a 17-13 edge, ignited by the strong play of Marcinek and Boyer and coupled with several errors from Upstate to take a 17-13 edge.
The Owls continued to capitalize on the errors and went on a 6-0 run that sealed the set for KSU.
Last week Schunzel commented on his team’s progress of staying focused throughout a five set contest. “Winning the best three out of five is a hard thing,” said Schunzel. “It’s hard to focus for two and a half hours on each and every point and it’s still a work in progress with that.”
After having 12 of its first 15 games on the road, KSU will have the next few games at home. The next game for the Owls will be Friday at 7 p.m. in the Convocation Center, versus Northern Kentucky.
