Photo by Matt Boggs
By Daniel Miller
The Kennesaw State volleyball team entered Friday night’s homecoming contest with a chance to move to 3-1 in the A-Sun, and make an early statement to the rest of the conference against the Stetson Hatters.
“It was a big match,”said KSU head coach Keith Schunzel. “It was two teams tied for third and fourth early in the conference season, and I didn’t get a great vibe from our team today.”
Instead, it was Stetson that was able to capitalize defeating KSU 3-1 in front of a spirited crowd in the Convocation Center.
“It was another unbelievable crowd tonight,”said Schunzel. “We had some Greeks out and I’m just a little disappointed we didn’t respond better to the crowd.”
Freshman Anaiah Boyer was one of the few bright spots for the Owls finishing with a team high .286 hitting percentage to go along with 14 kills and seven digs.
“Were asking Anaiah to do a lot as a freshman,” said Schunzel. “She’s been great all year, and she’s not even scratching the surface of how good she can be.”
Kristi Piedimonte led the team with 35 assists to go with six digs while Kelly Marcinek finished the night with 10 kills.
The Owls were their own enemy versus the Hatters, and it was no secret that for most of the night whenever KSU needed a play to be made it just didn’t happen.
“From the serve pass to the pregame meal, I was a little worried we were being too loosey goosey and I think that is how we came out tonight,” said Schunzel.
KSU lost the opening set 26-24 that featured a series of rallies and attack errors. It was 6-5 in favor of the Owls before the Hatters pounced on the KSU miscues to build an 11-7 lead. The Owls responded with 7-2 run to seize the lead back at 14-13 on a kill by Ria Ridley. The Owls then proceeded to commit three consecutive errors, but despite that were right there to take the set leading 23-21, but were not able to hold on.
That was the theme of the night for the Owls although they were able to breakthrough in the second set securing a 25-22 win.
On what went right in the second set, Schunzel simply said, “ We got kills, and didn’t make errors.” KSU clinched the set with a kill from Cierra Royster after a long set point, which momentarily electrified the crowd.
Coming out of the locker room tied 1-1, the Owls got off to a lackluster start in the third set quickly finding themselves trailing 6-1 with four out of the first six points for the Hatters coming off Owls miscues KSU managed to trim the Stetson lead to 12-8 before a 7-1 run opened the flood gates allowing Stetson to coast to a 25-15 set victory.
It appeared KSU was going to even the game in fourth set. The Owls built an early 11-7 advantage before a 5-1 Stetson run evened the score at 12. Both teams would go point for point until KSU went ahead 21-18 on consecutive attack errors from the Hatters. Stetson rallied to tie it at 25-25. The Owls couldn’t muster a response and lost the set 28-26.
It will be important for the Owls to regroup quickly with Florida Gulf Coast coming to the Convocation Center Saturday. The Eagles are 4-0 in A-Sun Conference play.
For all the latest updates, make sure to follow the KSU Sentinel Sports Twitter page @Sports_Sentinel for live updates all throughout the season.
Where do I find The History of KS U Womens volleyball to share with my girl scouts before we come to your November 1st game?
Barbara, you can find stats, schedules and roster of all of the teams since 2006 at this link: http://www.ksuowls.com/sports/2012/7/21/WVB_0721123854.aspx Also, you can talk to the athletics communications department by going to ksuowls.com. Hope this helps.
Chris Raimondi
Barbara, you can find stats, schedules and roster of all of the teams since 2007 at this link: http://www.ksuowls.com/sports/2012/7/21/WVB_0721123854.aspx Also, you can talk to the athletics communications department by going to ksuowls.com. Hope this helps.
Chris