JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville University's volleyball team lost to Kennesaw State in straight sets Saturday afternoon in the Historic Swisher Gym, securing the fourth seed in the Atlantic Sun conference tournament.

"Today was a heartbreaker, losing the last game at home this season," said Head Coach Julie Darty. "It's certainly an emotional time for the girls, but I'm hoping that we can learn from this and that it will spur something heading into the postseason."

Both teams were playing hungry in the first set, leading to 17 ties and four lead changes. Kennesaw's final push gave the Owls a 25-23 win. The second set included several uncharacteristic errors for the Dolphins, which allowed Kennesaw to win the game 25-16. The final set included several runs by both teams, but the final run went to the Owls, and Kennesaw managed to walk out of Swisher with a three-set victory.

Jessica Armstrong led Jacksonville's offense with 11 kills and a .435 hitting percentage, and Emily Laskelle also had double-digit kills with 10. Jizzyan Gesualdo had 40 assists, which puts her total for the year at 1,045. Mayara Prestes had 23 digs, and Kelly Koop had 10 digs and six kills. Cristina Finan and Ana Gabriella Nieto-Gomez each had eight kills.

"I think Jess had a phenomenal game," said Darty. "If we could have just found more ways to set her and be in system we would have had a shot."

Jacksonville and Kennesaw State were tied for third in the A-Sun standings at 8-5 before the match. Kennesaw improved to 9-5, and JU dropped to 8-6. The Dolphins are the fourth seed in the conference tournament, and will face cross-town rival North Florida in the first round on Thursday.

"When you're in the conference tournament it's a whole new season, so I'm hoping it's a fresh start for us and that we got whatever that was out of our system," concluded Darty. "It's tough to lose like that on your home court; you scratch your head and can't really figure out what went wrong. Nothing was clicking, and it just felt off. But we can learn from it, and with a day off and a good practice on Monday we'll head to Nashville and hopefully get things going in the tournament."

Fans can follow all the action from the 2015 season on JUDolphins.com, through twitter @JUVolleyball, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JacksonvilleUniversityAthletics.