Kennesaw State volleyball earns season sweep over USC Upstate.Rel

Release from Kennesaw State Athletics:

Trailing 2-1 in the match and down 9-3 in the fourth set, Kennesaw State’s backs were against the wall and they responded to scrap their way back and win the final two sets to beat USC Upstate in five sets.

Trailing 9-3 in the fourth set, KSU took a timeout and responded going on a 4-0 run, eventually tying the score up at 12. The Owls took the lead and pushed it to 19-15 on a Megan McGuinness kill. The Spartans cut it to 19-17, but KSU wasn’t going to let this one slip away going on to clinch the set 25-21 and force a fifth.

After trailing early, Kennesaw State clawed its way back and got its first lead of the set after a set error to put them up 8-7. That sparked a 4-1 run to go up 10-8 causing USC Upstate to take a timeout. The Spartans came out of the timeout hot going on a 3-0 run of their own to go up 11-10. With the match tied at 12, Anaiah Boyer stepped up to get two kills to seal the win for Kennesaw State.

In the first set it was tight early, but with the score tied at 12, KSU used two straight blocks to spark an 8-2 run and go up 20-14. The Owls used that momentum to go on and win the opening set easily 25-16.

Notes
– With the victory, Kennesaw State finishes off five-straight matches on the road. The Owls went 3-2 in that span winning the final three matches. The three match-winning streak is the longest in A-Sun play since 2011 when the team won six in a row.
– Sydni Shelton led the team with 20 kills in the match hitting .340. In both matches against Upstate this season, Shelton combined to have 43 kills hitting well over .300. Out of the 108 attacks against the Spartans, she only made four errors.
– This was the sixth five set match that Kennesaw State has played in this season. The Owls are 5-1 in those matches. In four of those six five setters, KSU was trailing 2-1 in the match and went on to win all four of them.
– The 95 digs that Kennesaw State had this afternoon is fifth most in school history. Four Owls had double-digit digs led by Katarina Morton who had 28. The other three were Karla Radillo who had 15 and Maddie Jones and Fanise Cannonboth had 10.
– KSU had 10.0 blocks against Upstate in the match. The Owls have had double-digits in blocks in five of the eight matches in conference play.