Ball State University
Rutgers-Newark
Men?s Volleyball Tops Rutgers-Newark In Hall Of Fame Opener
February 10, 2007 | Men's Volleyball
SPRINGFIELD, Mass - - The Ball State (5-4) men's volleyball team opened its fifth trip to the Volleyball Hall of Fame Morgan Classic with a 3-0 (30-27, 30-18, 30-18) victory over Rutgers-Newark (2-6) Friday evening at Springfield College's Blake Arena.
With the victory, the Cardinals advance to the Championship Match of the two-day, four team event and will face
In Friday's victory, the Cardinals limited the Scarlet Raiders to a .062 (32-26-97) attack percentage, while recording a season-best 15.5 total blocks.
“We came into tonight's match with a good defensive scheme and our team executed really well, holding their top attacker, Eric Honsberger, to a .152 hitting percentage,” said head coach Joel Walton. “Overall, I thought we turned in a nice team effort.”
In the opening set, the Cardinals found themselves down by five points at the 8-3 mark, and continued to trail by four at 21-17. However, kills from BSU's Nick Meyer (
Mark Rumschik (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park H.S.) would follow with a kill, while a Scarlet Raiders attack error gave BSU a three-point advantage at 27-24. The Cardinals would eventually win the game by three, at 30-27, on a block assist from Ryan Clarke (
“After a slow start offensively, Nick played a critical role in getting our team back on track,” added Walton. “He made some huge kills to get us back in the first game, and then set the tone early in the second game with some dominating play.”
In the second set, Meyer helped guide the Cardinals to a 9-4 advantage, with five kills and a block assists. From there, the Cardinals were able to build a 10-point advantage, at 16-6, on a kill from Clarke. BSU's largest lead of the game was 13 points at the 19-6. The Cardinals would win the game at 30-18 on back-to-back kills from Chamberlain.
The third and final game would once again see the Cardinals cruise to a 9-4 lead before taking its first 10-point edge at 25-15 on a blocks assist from Chamberlain and Clarke. After a kill from Eric Schulte (
Meyer would collect 19 of his match-high 21 kills in the first two games, before being replaced in the line-up. Meyer also finished the contest with a season-high .586 (
Junior Ian Peckler (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills H.S.) would pace all players with nine digs, while Rumschik added seven to go along with six kills and two total blocks.
Chamberlain would also finish the night with double-digit kills, adding 13 to his four blocks, four digs and service ace.
Willmann paced all players with eight total blocks, while Schmitz was two behind at six. Willmann added four digs and two assists to his stat line, while Schmitz posted 39 assists, four digs and a kill.
Clarke finished the contest with four kills and four blocks, while Schulte tallied three kills, a dig and a block assists.
Also factoring in the match for
For the match, the Cardinals held the advantage in every statistical category. BSU tallied a .363 (52-19-91)-to-.062 edge in hitting, a 30-to-18 lead in digs, a 15.5-to-10.5 advantage in team blocks and a 2-to-1 edge in aces.
Honsberger would lead the Scarlet-Raiders attack with 14 kills, while Mark Hulse scored a team-best six total blocks. Hulse also collected a team-best six digs.
