Kennesaw State volleyball’s Piedimonte and Boyer named to Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team

Release by Kennesaw State Athletics:

Two of Kennesaw State’s talented freshman were named to the Atlantic Sun All-Freshman team as Kristi Piedimonte and Anaiah Boyer were honored when the conference released its annual post-season awards.

Both players were unanimous selections to the team.

“We are excited for both Anaiah and Kristi to be honored by the league,” head coach Keith Schunzel said. “Both players, as true freshmen, played huge roles for our team this season and even more encouraging is that both players continued to improve all the way until the end of a long season, something that many freshmen struggle with. The future is incredibly bright for both!”

Piedimonte had 935 assists on the season averaging 8.74 per set, which is sixth in the conference. She averaged 1.08 kills per set and finished with 108 on the season. Her team leading 35 service aces set a new single-season record at Kennesaw State and was fifth in the conference averaging .34 per set. Piedimonte won A-Sun Freshman of the Week two times during the season.

“Asking a true freshmen to step onto a college volleyball court and run an offense is a tall task, but Kristi handled it as well as I could have imagined,” Schunzel said. “She has a tenacious desire to improve and maximize her potential. As the season progressed, Kristi’s consistency improved tremendously, and she became more and more comfortable with our attackers and running our offense. Another huge challenge for young setters is handling the many stresses that being the quarterback of a college volleyball team entails, and as this year went along Kristi became visibly more relaxed and comfortable in that role, which are important things for her as our team moves forward. The great news is that Kristi isn’t even close to her potential as a setter and as a leader of this team, and we can’t wait to help her continue to mature and develop as both.”

Boyer finished second on the team in kills (256) and digs (235) and third on the team in blocks (45.0). In conference matches, Boyer led the team in kills with 162 and was second in blocks with 30.0 and digs with 141. She also led the team with eight double-doubles and seven of those came in conference matches. Her average of 2.98 kills per set in conference matches led the team and was eighth in the conference. Boyer won A-Sun Freshman of the Week one time during the season.

“Anaiah Boyer is a special player and it’s been so fun to watch her develop in the very short time she’s been an Owl,” Schunzel said. “We recruited Anaiah as a left-side attacker, thinking that eventually she could be a 6 rotation player, and primary passer and defender. About a month in to the season, Anaiah clearly became our best right side attacker/blocker option, and having never played or trained in that position, she was thrust into that role and excelled. By the end of the year, Anaiah was one of our main passers, was one of our most consistent attackers and was consistently one of our fiercest competitors. Similar to Kristi, Anaiah is not even remotely close to the level that she is going to be at as she continues to train and improve. We’re looking forward to seeing Anaiah bust her butt in the offseason so she can take her game to a new level next year.”

The volleyball team has one more match in their 2014 season as they will travel to Athens, Georgia to take on the University of Georgia on Friday, November 28 at 5 p.m.