Flashes use third game adjustments to win 3-1

Kent State junior Vaiva Laniauskas and senior Anne Zakelj block Toledo’s Liz Sundberg Friday night at the M.A.C. Center. The Flashes won 3-0. CAITLIN PRARAT | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: Dan Kloock

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The Kent State volleyball team completed an undefeated weekend Saturday by defeating Ball State 3-1 at the M.A.C. Center.

“Today’s win was fantastic,” Kent State coach Glen Conley said. “We knew this was going to be a tough weekend, I have a lot of respect for Ball State, they’re certainly not their record.”

Ball State got out to an early 7-3 lead in game one, but the Flashes would come back and eventually tie the game at 22. The Flashes controlled the end of game one and won 30-27.

“At the beginning of these matches everybody’s scouted each other, and you’re trying to feel each other out,” Conley said. “So it takes about half the match to make adjustments, and our girls have been great at making adjustments all year long.”

The Flashes carried the momentum to game two and jumped out to an early lead while scoring 13 of the first 16 points. Ball State made it interesting when it cut the lead to 10, but were unable to get back into the game, and the Flashes took game two 30-18.

Ball State came back to win game three 30-27 by changing its strategy and taking Kent State away from its game, by and short serving the Flashes.

Conley talked to the team about adjusting to the short serves, and the Flashes eliminated any chance of a Ball State comeback, 30-20.

The Flashes played the fourth game like a team eager to put the game away and avoid a fifth game. Senior Anja Knabe-Paulsen attacked Ball State from the net and lifted the team with a big spike in front of the net.

“We should have won the third game,” Knabe-Paulsen said. “In the fourth game we wanted to give everything and play as good as we could, not only to play to win, but to play as good as we can.”

Saturday’s win, along with Friday’s win over Toledo, puts the Golden Flashes at 15-6 this season and 6-2 in the MAC, still in the hunt for a first round bye in the conference tournament. Conley said the wins were important in keeping pace with the rest of the conference.

“We got to keep pace with Miami, (Bowling Green) and Ohio,” Conley said. “The East is really strong, and it’s going to be a crapshoot between us four teams.”

Contact field hockey reporter Jeff Russ at [email protected].