Category | Sports

Volleyball team wins two in a row

Published on October 21, 2008 by The Sentinel

    The KSU volleyball team came out on top of two conference matches
this weekend, notching the first back-to-back games sweep in the
program’s short history.

   
    The first game was played Fri., Oct. 17 in the Convocation Center against University of South Carolina Upstate and the second game was against East Tennessee State University on the following afternoon. 

    The Owls clenched their Friday night win in just four sets, taking the first, third and fourth for the win.  In their first set KSU won easily by taking an early 9-4 lead that was never tested by the USC Upstate team. 
   
    In the second set KSU fell to a Spartan attack, losing the set 25-19. 

    The Owls kept the third set close for a while, until an 8-0 run headed by Sabrita Gulley, Callie Churchwell, Paris Leonce and Rachael Albright.  Upstate rallied back and came within two points until Gulley came up with the set-winning kill, leaving the score 25-22. 

    In the final set KSU kept at least a three point lead on their opponents, eventually winning 25-17, and taking the match.

    Junior Chelsey Denesha and Sophomore Sabrita Gulley were both key players in this match, recording double-doubles.  Denesha led all players with 17 kills and tied Gulley for match-high in digs with 10. Gulley tallied 11 kills in her double-double. 

    Standout Asjia Stokes led all players in points in this match.  She had 20 points from 16 kills, three aces and two block assists.  The Owl’s totaled 55 digs and 57 kills.

    KSU Head Coach Valerie Jones was pleased with her team’s performance in this first game, stating, “In the first set, we really did a good job of coming out and taking control early.”  She adds, “In the second set, we lost focus a bit and allowed Upstate to come back into the match.”

    In the Saturday afternoon match, the Owls were supporting Breast Cancer Awareness month with all fans wearing pink along with the team sporting pink uniforms.  According to Jones, the Owls “showed a lot of determination on the court” against a tough ETSU team.  With this win, KSU received their first sweep of back-to-back A-Sun weekend games in program history.

    This match was won with a 3-0 sweep of the Bucs at home in the Convocation Center.  The Owls led the first set early, winning with a score of 25-18.  The second set came down to four set points by the Bucs, but the Owls fought back, capitalizing on two ETSU attack errors and presenting their own offense off a Denesha ace and a Gulley kill.  KSU gave up three early points in the third set, but with the help of five Stokes’ serves, the Owls regained control with a 6-3 score. 

    Eventually ETSU would fight back and tie the score to 13-all, but a 4-0 run for Kennesaw put the game away with a kill by Leonce and a foul serve by the Bucs, making the score 25-21.

    The Owls celebrated a huge team performance, with notable players being Gulley with 11 kills, Denesha with four block assists, and Ginny Frederick with 18 assists, three kills and a block solo.

    A pleased Jones stated, “Our hard work as a team is finally getting rewarded with results. This was a very big win for us as a program.”