Kent State University
3-3
University of Tennessee
5-1
Volleyball Drops Four-Setter to Visiting Tennessee
9/3/2016 10:39:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
KENT, Ohio – Kent State went toe-toe for the opening two sets before falling, 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 13-25, 14-25), to the visiting Tennessee Volunteers out of the Southeastern Conference Saturday evening at the M.A.C. Center. The Golden Flashes (3-3) have now lost consecutive home matches for the first time since October of the 2013 season.
"This was another tough match for us tonight," said head coach Don Gromala. "I really like how we came out and started the first two sets. We showed a lot of grit in coming back to win in the second set, but we just kind of lost it. They put some pressure on us, and we didn't make the appropriate adjustments on the court."
The first two sets of the night were extremely competitive with 16 ties and 5 lead changes. Neither team led by more than three points in the opening set and a five-point advantage was the largest in the second. Although the Volunteers recorded eight more kills in those sets, the Flashes committed four fewer attack errors and were outhit by a narrow .218 to .195 margin.
Over the final two sets, however, Kent State had just one more kill (17) than error (16) for a .013 hitting percentage, while Tennessee recorded 26 kills with just two errors for a .436 hitting percentage. The Vols also had 8 of their 13 blocks in the final two sets.
"Offensively, we started off alright but kind of fell off with their block stressing us out," said Gromala. "We didn't make the right adjustments to find ways to get some points out of that. I feel like we passed and served alright, but we have to take care of the net because that's where points are won and lost."
Junior Kelsey Bittinger led Kent State offensively once again with a match-high 14 kills and 16 points. Sophomore Lexi Mantas matched career-bests with 9 kills and 12 digs. Senior Katarina Kojic led the way with 27 assists.
Defensively, junior Challen Geraghty led all players with 19 digs. Bittinger and Kojic added nine and eight digs, respectively. Freshman Myla King had a team-high four blocks.
A back-and-forth first set saw Tennessee take the lead for good behind a four-point spurt that turned a 16-15 deficit into a 19-16 lead. Kent State stopped the run on a kill by junior Heather Younkin. The Flashes got within a point at 22-21, but a kill by the Vols made it 23-21. Kent State appeared to score the next point as the ball neared the floor in no man's land after a miscommunication on the Tennessee side of the floor, but a pancake on third contact by setter Sedona Hansen soared the ball over the net and led to a Vols kill moments later. Younkin added another kill, her fifth of the set, before Tennessee ended it, 25-22.
Tennessee used a pair of three-point runs to take a 12-7 lead in the second set after the teams split the opening 12 points. It was still a five-point Vols advantage at 19-14 when the Flashes put together a 6-1 spurt to tie the set at 20-20. Trailing 22-21, back-to-back kills by Mantas and senior Drew Norberg were followed by a Mantas ace to go ahead 24-22. After a ballhandling error, Bittinger brought the crowd to its feet with a laser off the Tennessee block to tie the match at a set apiece.
Runs of five, four and five allowed Tennessee to quickly jump out to a 15-4 lead in the third set. Kent State was unable to get within nine the rest of the set, as the Vols used 6 blocks and 19 digs to hold the Flashes to a .000 hitting percentage.
After losing the first three points of the fourth, Kent State responded to take a 5-4 lead on a kill by Kojic. However, Tennessee answered with an 8-0 run of its own to take control of the set. The Vols totaled 15 kills on 31 errorless swings for a .484 hitting percentage en route to a 25-14 victory.
Kent State is back in action at the M.A.C. Center on Tuesday when it hosts Robert Morris at 7 p.m.
