Kennesaw, Ga. -- Madison Akins and McKenna Foster combined for 33 kills as visiting Stetson defeated Kennesaw State 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 25-15, 28-26) in an Atlantic Sun Conference match Friday night at the Convocation Center.
Kayla Weller added 51 assists as the Hatters (11-6) won their third straight match and improved to 3-1 in conference play.
"We started off a little shaky and made a couple of unforced errors with our serving, but we managed to reel it back in." Stetson head coach Kristina Hernandez said. "I thought our pin hitters did a really good job tonight, McKenna and Maddie really kept us in a lot of good sets. Defensively, I think we all did a pretty good job. I think the big difference-maker for us was whether we could take control of our serve."
Stetson trailed 23-21 in the first set but scored five of the final six points to come away with a 26-24 win.
Despite hitting .423 in the second set, the Hatters came up three point short and went into the intermission tied 1-1.
Stetson cruised to a 10-point victory in the third set as Akins collected eight of her team-high 17 kills in the frame.
Kennesaw State (8-10, 2-2) owned a late 21-18 lead in the fourth set, but the Hatters would mount late a game-winning rally. Three kills by Foster and a couple of KSU attack errors helped Stetson gain a match point at 24-22. The Owls extended the set with back-to-back tallies and later pushed Stetson to the brink at 26-25. Jessica Armstrong tied the set with a kill from the outside, and then Weller and Shelby Connors combined on a block to give Stetson another match point. A KSU ball-handling error sealed the 28-26 set win and match victory for the Hatters.
"The first and the fourth sets went extra points, and (both teams) had plenty of opportunities," Hernandez said. "I thought we stayed really grounded with what we were doing and went on to the next point, and we were able to close out those sets with some aggressive serving and some really key blocks."
Foster finished with 16 kills and committed just three errors for a .382 attack percentage. Connors and Armstrong also contributed nine kills in the front row for the Hatters.
Defensively, Alexis Villa and Alexis Drost anchored the back row with 13 digs and 12 digs, respectively. Akins added three blocks to her 17-kill performance.
Weller's 51 assists put her over 2,400 assists for her career,
Stetson will visit USC Upstate at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Notes: Akins has surpasses her previous career-high of 16 kills in three consecutive matches ... The Hatters moved into sole possession of third place in the conference standings, one game back of FGCU and Lipscomb ... The Hatters improved to 17-12 in sets decided by three points or less.
