Ball State University
St. Francis
Men's Volleyball Suffers 3-0 Setback at St. Francis
January 21, 2007 | Men's Volleyball
The Ball State men's volleyball team (1-4) dropped its second match of the season to St. Francis (3-2) Sunday afternoon, falling by a score of 0-3 (22-30, 23-20, 29-31) at DeGol Arena.
“Our serving and serve receiving continue to be a weak point for our team,” said head coach Joel Walton. “Our offense is struggling because we are out of system a lot. Right now, I am looking for passers who can be consistent and mentally tough at critical times in the match.”
After being limited to no kills on nine swings through the first two games Sunday, BSU senior Nick Meyer connected for seven kills in the third set to break the BSU rally-scoring era career kills record with 1,037. The previous record was 1,036 set by Jary Delgado (2001-04).
Matt McCarthy would pace the BSU offense overall in the match, collecting 11 kills on 12 swings for a career-high .833 (
After falling behind 6-2 in the opening set, the Cardinals rallied back with a 6-2 run of its own to tie the game at 8-8. During the run, Ryan Clarke scored a pair of kills, while McCarthy and Todd Chamberlain each tallied a marker. However, a kill from SFU's Pete Fryer and a service aces from Nick Rivett would put the hosts up for good as they went on to win the game 30-22.
In the second game, the Cardinals would jump out to an early 6-3 edge and maintain the three-point lead through the 13-10 mark. The Red Flash would tie the game at 15-15 and eventually claim a three-point edge of its own at 20-17.
The final stanza saw the Cardinals fall behind by four points at 15-11 only to tie the game at 18 and take a one-point edge on a kill from Meyer on the following point. Three-straight St. Francis points would give the host a 22-20 lead, before BSU tied the game at 23-23 on a pair of kills from Matt Sprague and a marker from McCarthy.
The Cardinals would go on to claim a three-point advantage at the 26-23 mark on a St. Francis attack error and kills from Chamberlain and McCarthy. The Red Flash would then tie the score with a three-point run of its own. The teams would trade the next seven points, pushing the score to 30-29 in favor of SFU. Unfortunately, a BSU attack error would end the game at 31-29.
In addition to his 11 kills, McCarthy would add a block assists in the contest, while Meyer paced the Cardinals with six digs and chipped in a solo stuff.
Chamberlain ended the afternoon ranked second on the BSU squad with nine kills, while scoring four digs, two blocks and the team's lone service ace. Sprague tallied seven kills and four digs in the loss, both career-highs.
Clarke would end the contest with five kills, two blocks and a dig, while Termion scored two blocks, two digs and a kill.
Jeff Schmitz would set the BSU offense, posting 38 assists on the day, while collecting two digs and a block assist.
Also factoring in the match for
Marc Honore paced the Red Flash offense with 19 kills, while Jordan Varee added 16. Zach Nanni would pace all players with seven digs.
As a team, the Cardinals were out-hit .187 (40-23-91) to .320 (50-19-97) in the contest. St. Francis also held a 25-to-22 lead in digs, a 11.5-to-6 edge in blocks and a 5-to-1 advantage in aces.
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