Kennesaw State volleyball tops USC Upstate in conference opener

Release from Kennesaw State Athletics:

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Kennesaw State volleyball team (7-8, 1-0) won a decisive five set match (18-25, 25-23, 25-19, 23-25, 17-15) in their Atlantic Sun Conference opener against USC Upstate.

“I’m so proud of the fight that our team showed tonight,” head coach Keith Schunzel said. “At times, we played as well as we’ve played all year and at times we played very average, 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. We had some incredible performances from individual players. Kelly Marcinek matched a school record with 24 kills, many of them late in the match and Kat Morton dominated the back court with 30 digs and passed lights out. This was certainly a step forward for our program as last year we came in this gym and lost set one in a similar manner as today and got blown out the rest of the match. This year we fought back winning sets two and three and pulled out a huge win in five.”

After having six kills in the first two sets, Marcinek collected 18 in the final three to tie the Kennesaw State record for kills in a match with 24.

Katarina Morton  finished the match with 30 digs and seven assists. Kristi Piedimonte finished the match with a career high in assists with 57 and added 12 digs as well. Senior Ria Ridley set a career high with 13 kills.