What you need to know:
* On Friday night, Georgia State and Troy went the distance in five sets. The Panthers took the match by a final of 25-23, 23-25, 25-10, 23-25 and 15-11.
* With the victory, GSU improves to 5-9 overall and 1-2 in the Sun Belt. Troy fell to 6-12 and 0-3 in the conference. Crystal Lee, Kristina Stinson and Eliza Zachary carried the Panther attack and combined for 30 kills on the night.
* The Panthers will look to build on tonight's momentum and improve to .500 in conference play tomorrow versus South Alabama. First serve is set for 6:00 p.m. as the Panthers battle the Jaguars.
ATLANTA – Georgia State and Troy went the full distance of five sets on Friday night. GSU took the final set by a final of 15-11 to close out the match. Head coach Sally Polhamus and the Panthers improve to 5-9 overall and 1-2 in Sun Belt conference play.
The Panthers used a balanced offensive attack to get the victory as Kristina Stinson, Eliza Zachary and Crystal Lee combined for 30 kills on the night. Lee led the way for GSU and accounted for a match-high 21 points. Sarah Renner added 36 assists and Celeste Friesen carried GSU defensively with 25 digs.
Logan Page and Symone Shaw paced the Troy Trojan offense with 20 kills between the two. Savannah Moore added six kills of her own to help match Georgia State step-for-step. Reina Terry totaled 25 assists and Bethany Cullity led Troy's defense with nine digs.
GSU got off to a fast start, taking a 10-5 lead in the first frame and not looking back. Kristina Stinson's third kill and a couple Trojan attacking errors sealed the opening set for the Panthers.
The Trojans responded nicely with a 25-23 win in set two as Shaw set the tone offensively with four kills. After dismounting Troy 25-10 on stellar offense from Stinson and Friesen's crisp defending, the Trojans bounced back for another 25-23 win to force a decisive fifth set. Page led the charge and totaled five of her 12 kills in the fourth.
Georgia State used a balanced offensive attack yet again from Shae Chapman, Anna Rantala, Zachary and company to grind out a 15-11 win and match victory. Chapman's third kill made it match point for the Panthers and a Trojan service error gave GSU the match.
Improving to 1-2 in the Sun Belt, Georgia State will attempt to string together a win streak after snapping a three-match losing streak on Friday night. The Panthers will battle the South Alabama Jaguars Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. in the Sports Arena.
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