Box Score
OXFORD, Miss. – Katie Bange posted 10 kills and five blocks, and Georgia Southern had 13 team blocks in a 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-17) volleyball victory over Kennesaw State Saturday morning.
The Eagles (6-1) finish the weekend 3-0, win their second tournament of the season and have now won 19 of their last 21 matches, dating back to last season.
Georgia Southern held Kennesaw State (1-5) to an .018 hitting percentage and collected three solo blocks and 20 block assists as a team, led by
Crysten Curry's nine (2 solo, 7 assists).
"Defensively, we made some positive strides this weekend," said Georgia Southern first-year coach
Dustin Wood. "We executed different blocking schemes we've been working on, and we started blocking very well, which made our back row defense even better. We touched a lot of balls, which allowed our transition game to execute at a high level this weekend."
Kym Coley posted eight kills and four blocks, and Curry added five kills. Katalin Minnerly tallied 23 assists, and Alexandra Beecher finished with 13 digs.
Cierra Royster led the Owls with 10 kills, and Camille Pedraza had a match-high 21 digs.
The Eagles showed no signs of a letdown following last night's win over Ole Miss as they jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first set. Coley had four kills during the stretch, and the Eagles won six points during Lauren LaRoque's serve.
Leading 14-12 in set two, GSU distanced itself with a 6-2 run en route to winning the set 25-17. Three team blocks, with Curry involved in all three, helped the Eagles start the third set with an 8-1 run. The Owls battled back to trim the margin to 15-13 before Bange ignited a 4-1 spurt with a kill.
Christina Vereb got two kills and was in on a block as the margin grew to seven points, and Bange ended the match with a kill.
The Eagles will play their first home match of the season when they host Georgia at 6 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse Tuesday. There will be a #TrueBlue Tailgate for students in the Hanner parking lot, beginning at 4 p.m., and it's the first opportunity for students to pick up football tickets to the Georgia Southern – Florida game in November.
"We've had a great start to the season, winning the tournaments at South Alabama and Ole Miss," said Wood. "We had a hiccup at Troy, but we've learned from it. We hope Tuesday will be crazy in Hanner for the Georgia match."
The match against Georgia begins an 11-match homestand for the Eagles, which includes two home tournaments and their first four Southern Conference matches.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
