JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville University volleyball team defeated Kennesaw State Saturday afternoon at Swisher Gymnasium in three straight sets to win its third conference game of the season. The Dolphins improve to 11-10, 3-4 in conference while Kennesaw State falls to 8-13, 2-5 in conference play.

With the win, Jacksonville extends its A-Sun home winning streak to 17-straight games dating back to 2012. The Dolphins were able to do it by finishing sets quickly and with a strong offensive attack.

"We talked about the importance of closing out sets," said head coach Julie Darty. "We couldn't give them any opportunity in the final set. We executed very well in closing out games today."

Sammie Strausbaugh led the offensive charge with a game-high 20 kills. Emily Laskelle decided two sets with kill-points in the first and second en route to a nine kill afternoon. Ana Gabriella Nieto-Gomez and Olga Nushtayeva would add to the depth of the Dolphins scoring attack. Nieto-Gomez recorded a 46.7-percent attack success rate with seven kills and a game-high five total blocks, while Nushtayeva had six kills.  

"Really impressed with our middles this weekend," said Darty, "They are very talented and have done a great job stepping up this weekend. They allow us to add more dimensions to our game and make us less predictable."

After some complacency the night before in closing out the final set, Jacksonville combatted any attempt of a comeback from the Owls. Leading 22-18, Strausbaugh, Nushtayeva and Laskelle would contribute the knock-out kill points.

During what would be the longest, scrappiest stanza of the match, the second set, Jacksonville found themselves down by as many as five points and didn't capture the lead until 22-21. The set would eventually get decided after Laskelle recorded the kill-point for a 29-27 victory.

The Dolphins return to action on Tuesday, October 21 when they are at Bethune-Cookman for a 7 p.m. weekday matchup, before another road swing of three straight conference games to close out the month of October. 

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