KENT, Ohio - The story about the battle between rivals Kent State and Akron simply comes down to net play.

The Golden Flashes (12-15, 5-8 MAC) out-blocked the Zips (12-15, 4-9 MAC) 13-2 and KSU tallied eight unassisted kills on over-passes in knocking off the Zips 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-19).

"Net play was definitely the difference tonight," explained head coach Glen Conley. "It was a focus for us tonight. They go into two-man passing play a lot. That is a lot of court for two players to cover and we tried to exploit that tonight. It worked out for us."

Kent State outhit Akron .346-.124 for the game as the Golden Flashes smashed 46 kills on only nine errors while Akron recorded 34 kills and 21 errors. Individually, senior Arjola Prenga led Kent State with 17 kills and nine digs while junior Lauren Jones led the team with 14 digs. Senior Jenny Keck added 32 assists.

For the Zips, Brionna Patterson had 10 kills and seven assists while Kara Smith contributed 25 assists.

Kent State came out swinging from the start on kills by Prenga and sophomore Liva Brivule. Akron rallied and the teams traded the first 14 points of the set before a 10-1 run helped sink the Zips. The spurt started with four-straight points on two attack errors by Patterson and a pair of unassisted kills on over-passes by Prenga.

A service error by freshman Meredith Paskert looked like it gave Akron hope, but an unassisted kill by Keck started a separate KSU 6-0 spurt. As in the first meeting this season in Akron, Keck was able to keep the Akron defense on its toes with long and short serves as the Zips committed three attack errors during the run. Akron made a run late in the set, but a Brivule kill and an Akron attack error ended the first set.

Kent State hit a blistering .485 in the first set (17 kills and one error on 33 attempts) while Akron was held to .188 (13 kills and seven errors on 32 attempts).

The hitting cooled a bit for the Flashes in set two, but Akron countered with 11 kills and 11 errors of their own. Akron went up 13-10 in the set, but six attack errors on Brivule's serve and a well-placed ball that got hung up in the net and fell softly on the Akron side of the net put Kent State up 22-15. The Flashes went on to win the second set by eight.

Keck proved to be the serving hero in the first and Brivule kept the Akron defense on its toes in the second, but it was junior libero Kristen Barr's turn in the final set. With Akron clinging to a 14-13 lead, a kill by junior Celia Sabo put Barr on the serve. Her mix of long and short serves led to four-straight kills by Kent State. An attack error and a kill by Brivule put an exclamation point on the 6-0 run. Akron cut the lead to 22-18, but Kent State scored three of the final four points to close out the match.

In two contests and seven total sets this season against Akron, Kent State has out-blocked the Zips 31-8 (4.43-1.14 blocks per set).

"Blocking is a focus for us," added Conley. "We feel like when we are blocking well, we are playing well. That is what we have to focus on, and we did this week and it paid off."

Kent State returns to action tomorrow night when it hosts Buffalo in its regular season home finale. Following the match, Kent State will honor the contributions of four seniors to Kent State volleyball.