The Kent State volleyball team swept Akron 3-0 Friday, for the team’s 11th sweep of the year.

Kent State (12-8, 4-3 Mid-American Conference) came ready to play against the Akron (8-13, 1-6 MAC), Kent State coach Mora Kanim said.

This was coming off the Flashes’ disappointing loss to Buffalo Thursday.

“Night and day is a good description of (Thursday) and (Friday’s) games,” Kanim said. “I thought we responded really well to the disappointment of last night. One thing this team has is a lot of heart, when they have a set back they come back with heart in the tournament. I thought they responded exceptionally well.”ÿ

Offensively the Flashes racked up the points easily and got out to an early 17-9 lead in game one.

“I thought we did a good job of setting the tempo tonight,” Kanim said. “We came out early in the match and set the tempo that we were OK and we were over last night and we were ready to play ball.”

In game two, the Flashes took advantage of Akron’s costly mistakes.

An early timeout by Akron did not help the Zips’ cause. Kent State once more got out to a big lead and won 30-10.

“To win a game 30-10, you are not going to get much better than that,” Kanim said.

Akron put up more of a fight in game three. The Zips kept the game close and led early in the contest 10-8.

Kent State took an early timeout to get themselves back on track. The timeout helped as they went on a 8-3 run to tie the game at 15.

“I called timeout because I thought we were not doing a good job of matching Akron’s energy,” Kanim said. “I thought they responded well and starting playing better and that’s when we started to roll.”

Akron did its best to keep the game close, but the Flashes proved to be too much. Kent State closed out the match 30-25.

Senior Sarah Wilber was the star of the match with 10 kills and 15 attacks and took over in game two by scoring 10 straight points.

“She had a great weekend, she was our lone bright spot last night and I think a lot of that is the senior leadership coming out,” Kanim said. “This group is pretty perceptive, they understand, they want to be good and they are willing to do what it takes and it’s fun to coach. I think we are doing a good job and when we start out well I think we are doing a good job of maintaining that level.”ÿÿÿÿÿ

Kent State next hosts Northern Illinois Oct. 20.

Contact sports correspondent Frank Schaefer at [email protected].