Kansas City Volleyball Begins FAU Invitational With a Pair of Wins

Friday, August 25

Boca Raton, FL

9:00 AM

Kansas City

1-0,0-0Summit League

Fairleigh Dickinson

0-1,0-0NEC

Kansas City

FDU

Kansas City Volleyball Begins FAU Invitational With a Pair of Wins

8/25/2023 10:37:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Blair Taylor and Sydney Henry set the tone with career high performances for the Roos

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Kansas City Volleyball started the 2023 season with style, taking a pair of wins over Fairleigh Dickinson and Florida Atlantic. Each win came in 3-1 fashion, with the Roos winning the first, second and fourth sets.
In the first match of the day, the Roos took down Fairleigh Dickinson in four sets behind decorated attacking power. Five Roos posted eight-or-more kills on the match, led by Kaia Dunford with 16. In addition, Sydney Henry posted a 44-assist, 14-dig double-double and Leah Green dug up a career-high 24 attacks.
Kansas City was dominant in the block against FAU, posting 16 blocks and holding the Owls to a .115 hitting percentage. Carly Gillen went for seven kills, and was involved in 13 total blocks: three solo blocks and a career-high 10 block assists. Dunford posted an 11-kill, 13-dig double-double to pace the Roos in both categories.

SET-BY-SET VS. FDU

SET ONE / 25-22 | The Roos jumped out to an 11-4 start in the early going, with six different players picking up a kill. FDU began to draw closer, pulling within two points at 22-20, but a pair of kills by Sydney Henry and an ace by Carly Gillen gave the Roos the victory.
SET TWO / 25-15 | After starting the set off 4-4, Kansas City went on a five-point run behind a pair of aces from Blair Taylor and never looked back. Sila Ozyurek posted four kills in the set and KC won easily.
SET THREE / 23-25 | Kansas City looked to be in control of the third set after going on a five-point run and taking an 18-12 lead, but the Knights ended the set on a 13-5 run and forced a fourth.
SET FOUR / 25-19 | The Roos used an eight-point run early in the set to take control of the fourth, led by a pair of kills from Ozyurek. FDU began to make things interesting, but KC's serving game took over, sending across five aces and securing the match.

SET-BY-SET VS. FAU

SET ONE / 25-16 | Green sent across two aces to give the Roos an early 6-2 lead. The Roos' lead would swell to as many as 10 points on Dunford's serve and a kill by Gillen put things away.
SET TWO / 25-16 | Odyssey Warren threw down three kills in a four-point span to give Kansas City an early lead. Warren's serve would help to expand the lead to as many as eight points, and KC took advantage of 10 FAU hitting errors.
SET THREE / 16-25 | Florida Atlantic jumped out with its best hitting set of the match, swinging at a .333 clip and making things interesting
SET FOUR / 25-23 | The Roos forced 10 more FAU hitting errors in the final set, setting up for 10 total blocks. Henry and Dunford teamed up for the match-sealing for Kansas City after going back-and-forth with the Owls.

STATS TO NOTE

Blair Taylor ended the match against FDU with six service aces, a career high. The last time a Roo reached that number was in the 2020 season, when Alli Schomers poster six aces against South Dakota State.
As a team, Kansas City has 15 aces against the Knights. That ties the most service aces since at least the 2003 season. The Roos previously posted 15 aces against Southern Illinois on Sep. 11, 2004.
Henry's 44 assists against FDU was a career-high, besting her previous mark of 31 set against Oral Roberts on Oct. 22 of last season. The last time a Roo reached that mark was Schomers against Western Illinois on Nov. 13, 2021.
Kansas City finished the match with 16 blocks, compared to Florida Atlantic's five.
Dunford led the Roos with 11 kills with Kimora Whetstone not far behind with nine and Warren following with eight.
Henry added 31 more assists against the Owls, bringing her total to 75 for the day.
This is the first time that the Roos have began the season with two wins since 2020.

COACH CHRISTI POSEY, QUOTED

"One key to the FDU win was that we won the serve/pass battle. Blair Taylor led the way with 6 aces while the team recorded 15 total.Offensively, we had good balance and we were pretty efficient."

"We executed our game plan well in the nightcap against host FAU, the 1st two sets, but faltered a bit in game 3, losing that set. We gutted out a tight 4th set with scrappy defense and solid blocking, tallying a season high 16 blocks, led by Carly Gillen's 8."

"It was a good first day of competition so our staff is pleased so far; the goal is to continue working hard, learning and play with grit and determination every play.We'll give it everything to get a win tomorrow to bring home a tourney championship!"

UP NEXT
The Roos have one more match in Boca Raton, taking on Holy Cross tomorrow at 10 a.m.