Kent State University
Iowa State
Volleyball Opens Season at Cyclone Invite
8/24/2017 5:57:00โฏPM | Women's Volleyball
The Kent State volleyball program begins the 2017 regular season at the Cyclone Invitational on Friday in Ames, Iowa. The Golden Flashes' opening weekend includes three matches over two days at Hilton Coliseum.ย
The Flashes will be tested right away by playing host Iowa State in its first match Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET. Recipients of 60 points in the AVCA Preseason Coaches Top 25 Poll, the Cyclones have played in 11 straight NCAA Tournaments and had the 11th-best home attendance (2,426) in the country last season. Kent State then has
an early wake-up call on Saturday with an 11 a.m. ET match against New Mexico before concluding the tournament against Omaha at 5 p.m. ET.
Sixth-year Kent State head coachย Don Gromala heads back to his alma mater and the place where his NCAA Division I coaching career began. Gromala both played for and coached the Iowa State men's club volleyball team, earning a pair of all-conference selections and guiding the team to four NIRSA the Cyclones mater during the 2003 season.
Kent State's match against Iowa State will be shown live on Cyclones.TV Powered by Mediacom and the Cyclones.TV web player. There will be no live stream for the three matches not involving Iowa State. For more information about Cyclones.TV, click here.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, August 25
7:30 p.m.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Kent State at Iowa State โ Live Statsย ย ย ย ย ย Video ($$)
Saturday, August 26
11:00 a.m.ย ย ย ย ย Kent State vs. New Mexico โ Live Statsย ย ย ย ย ย
5:00 p.m.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Kent State vs. Omaha โ Live Stats
FLASHBACK TO 2016
Kent State went 15-15 overall and 8-8 in Mid-American Conference play last season, earning the No. 7 seed in the MAC Volleyball Championship and losing competitive five-setter to Toledo in the first round.
The loss was a fitting end to a season in which the Golden Flashes had a difficult time winning on the road, especially in close matches. Kent State, which played a stretch of five consecutive five-setters during the conference season, was just 4-6 in matches that went five sets. The Flashes were just 2-5 when those matches were played away from the M.A.C. Center.
After improving to 9-6 with a five-match win streak that concluded on the first weekend of MAC play, Kent State went just 6-9 the rest of the year.
The highlight of the season was a thrilling 3-2 victory over MAC regular season co-champion Miami on Senior Night at the M.A.C. Center. After fighting off match-point with three straight points to take the fourth set, 26-24, the Flashes nearly hit .500 in the final frame to snap the longest winning streak in Division I and hand the RedHawks their lone loss of the conference season.
MAC PRESEASON POLL
Kent State was picked to finish third in the MAC East Division according to the conference's preseason coaches' poll, which was released on Tuesday (Aug. 22).
Kent State totaled 49 points with one second-place vote and 11 third-place votes. Miami was voted as the favorite to repeat as MAC East champions with 11 first-place votes and 71 points. Perennial conference power Ohio is slated to finish second. The Bobcats, which had their streak of 13 straight seasons claiming at least a share of the East Division crown snapped in 2016, received the remaining first-place vote and totaled 55 points.
Head coach Don Gromala has guided the Flashes to a spot in the final conference standings higher than their projected finish in three of the past four seasons.
Kent State received one vote to win the 2017 MAC Volleyball Championship and receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, trailing only host Miami (8 votes).
BITTINGER AND GERAGHTY EARN PRESEASON RECOGNITION
Seniors Kelsey Bittinger and Challen Geraghty were selected to the Preseason All-MAC East Team, as Kent State was one of four programs with two players to be recognized by the league's 12 head coaches.
Two of the most accomplished and decorated players in Golden Flashes volleyball history, Bittinger and Geraghty are the program's only two-time All-MAC First Team honors.
Bittinger is the active MAC leader in kills and one of only seven active NCAA Division I players with at least 1,000 career kills (1,107) and digs (1,015). She is the conference's returning leader in kills per set (3.55) from last season when she also led all non-liberos in digs per set (3.19). Bittinger also excels in the classroom and was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-Americaยฎ Third Team in 2016.
Geraghty has scrapped her way to 1,880 digs over the past three years and enters her senior campaign as the NCAA Division I active leader. The 2015 MAC Defensive Player of the Year averaged 5.53 digs per set a season ago to rank fourth in the country after ranking sixth in 2015.
VETERAN FLASHES SET FOR 2017
Kent State returns 13 letterwinners and four starters from last season and feature one of its most veteran rosters over the past decade with nine student-athletes entering their third or fourth season in the program. Kelsey Bittinger, Challen Geraghty, Amber Gerdeman, Brittney Jakscht and Heather Younkin form one of the most successful senior classes in school history and have combined to play in 1,216 sets over the past three seasons. Juniors Sam Jones, Amy Kober and Lexi Mantas and redshirt sophomore Darby Connors enter their third season with the Flashes.
More than 80-percent of the team's kills and digs from a year ago are accounted for on the current roster. Kent State returns its top three leaders in both categories and is one of only two MAC schools that brings back three players who averaged at least 2.50 kills per set during the conference season.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Iowa State
The Cyclones lost just one starter from last season's team that finished 18-11 and extended the program's streak to 11 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Iowa State faced the 16th-toughest schedule in the country and racked up six RPI top-50 victories while going undefeated (12-0) against teams outside of the top-50. Most notably, the Cyclones split a pair of five-set contests against national runner-up Texas.
Iowa State's front row features four players with All-Big 12 accolades on their résumé and is led by All-American Jess Schaben. The outside hitter has led the Cyclones in kills in both of her collegiate seasons and tallied 349 kills (3.36/set) and 242 digs (2.33/set) a year ago. Middle blocker Grace Lazard (2.76 kills/set; 92 blocks) and middle blocker/right side hitter Samara West (2.48 kills/set) were both All-Big 12 Second Team honorees last season. Middle blocker Alexis Conaway (1.87 kills/set) was an All-Big 12 First Team selection in 2015.
Libero Hali Hillegas is the top returner in the back row. Hillegas earned Big 12 All-Freshman Team honors last season when she posted 3.93 digs per set.
The Cyclones welcome the nation's 17th-best recruiting class in the nation, according to PrepVolleyball.com. Three of the four members of the class garnered top-100 rankings from the website, led by No. 24 Piper Mauck. The setter enrolled at ISU for the Spring 2017 semester and participated in spring volleyball practices and competitions.
In its exhibition, Iowa State showed earned a dominant 3-0 victory over Drake (25-12, 25-13, 25-5). The Cyclones hit .287 as a team and recorded 33 kills, while restricting Drake to a -.165 hitting percentage with 14 kills.
New Mexico
The Lobos feature more newcomers (9) than returning players (6) from last season when they went 16-16 overall and 6-12 in the Mountain West Conference. Setter Carson Heilborn (7.37 assists/set) and libero Ashley Kelsey (4.29 digs/set) are among the top returners.
New Mexico has to replace its top three attackers, which combined for nearly 70-percent of the team's kills. Middle blockers Victoria Spragg (160; 1.34 /set) and Mariessa Carrasco (115; 0.95/set) are the only players who recorded at least 100 kills for the Lobos a year ago.
Omaha
The Mavericks closed a disappointing season by winning three of its final four matches to finish with an 8-22 record just one year after playing in the Summit League Tournament championship match. Omaha, which was 1-5 at neutral sites and 1-15 vs. team inside the RPI top-200 in 2016, defeated Ball State, 3-2, in its only contest against a MAC school.
Omaha returns eight letterwinners, including four starters. Senior setter Sydney O'Shaughnessy passed both the 3,000 career assists and 1,000 career digs marks last season and is a 2015 All-Summit First Team performer.
Outsider hitter Chloe Dousette is the leading returner in kills, totaling 171 (3.00 per set) over the second half of the season. The Summit League All-Freshmen Team honoree was sidelined the first 15 matches of the season with an injury. The Mavericks' attack will be bolstered by the return of outside hitters who received medical redshirts last season in Mackenzie Horkey and Gessica Gdowski. Horkey was averaging 3.35 kills and 3.55 digs per set when she was injured in the seventh match of the season. Gdowski averaged 1.65 kills and 2.13 digs per set and earned Summit League All-Freshmen Team honors in 2015.
ALL-TIME VS. OPPONENTSย
Kent State is 0-1 all-time against the tournament field with a 3-1 loss at New Mexico in 1998. This will be the first time the Flashes play both Iowa State and Omaha.
UP NEXT
Kent State is back on the road next weekend (Sept. 1-2) at the Cardinal Classic. The Flashes will be tested against perennial NCAA Tournament qualifiers Illinois, Western Kentucky and host Louisville.
FOLLOW THE FLASHES
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