Category | Sports

Volleyball clinches first winning season

Published on November 3, 2009 by Ben Hampton

The volleyball team continued their winning ways last Friday night at the KSU Convocation Center, extending their current winning streak to five games.

“We’re not too worried about the winning streak,” said head coach Karen Weatherington. “As a team we try to focus on the short range goals that are ahead of us, that’s winning the next game. I’m excited to look at the stats and the record and say we’ve won five, but there haven’t been any surprises for me because I knew the group of girls we had coming into the season.”

The Ladies defeated USC Upstate (7-19, 3-13 A-Sun) in three straight sets (25-19, 25-19, 25-19) to clinch the first winning season in program history.

Chelsey Denesha had her fourth straight double-double with a match high 11 kills and team-high 10 digs to lead KSU (15-9, 9-7 A-Sun) to victory. Denesha hit .400 for the match, committed just three errors in 20 attempts and also contributed four total blocks.

“As a senior I have figured out what I need to do to be successful,” Denesha said. “Now, the whole team is on the same page so it’s a lot easier for us to play. It’s time to do what we need to do to get prepared to move on in tournament play.”

The middle blocking duo of Holly Knight and Callie Churchwell combined for 15 kills, no attack errors and eight total blocks on the evening.

KSU senior setter Ginny Frederick had a big night recording her 1,500th career assist during the first set of the night.

“Friday night was a blast,” Frederick said. “Everyone is just playing so well together. Even when Upstate got a few points on us we just would come back together. I think we have reached a point in the season where we can count on everyone to play well.”

With the score tied at 11 in the first set, the Owls went on a 9-4 run capped by a kill from Churchwell. With a 20-15 lead, the Owls were able to close out the set with five straight side-outs.

The teams battled to a tie at 12 in the second set, but Knight served five straight points for the Owls and Rachael Albright added three more points on her serve as the Owls pulled away to win the set.

In the third set, the teams fought to a tie at 15 before Sabrita Gulley served up five straight points, thanks to two kills from Maja Kostic. The Spartans got no closer than three points the rest of the way as the Owls took their third straight set.

KSU is tied for fifth place in the A-Sun with Campbell, as both teams have a 9-7 conference record. The Owls are at a pivotal point in the season with the top six teams in the conference moving on to tournament play in Fort Myers, Fl. Nov. 19-21.

“We have put ourselves in a very good position to qualify for the conference tournament, which was one of our goals from the beginning of the season,” Weatherington said. “We are clicking as a team right now and have made so many gains in the past few weeks.”

“We made all of this possible by winning on the road, that’s been very big for us, and we are looking forward to continuing that success in the weeks to come. For now though, I am excited to have Florida Gulf Coast come and challenge us on our home court,” Weatherington said.

The Owls will continue conference play Friday at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center when FGCU comes to town.