No. 15 Men's Volleyball Soars Over Hawks In Three

MUNCIE, Ind. - - Senior Nick Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller H.S.) and freshman Matt Sprague (Ballwin, Mo./Winnetonka H.S.) each scored 13 kills to lead the No. 15 Ball State men's volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-18, 30-27, 30-20) victory over Quincy Friday night at Worthen Arena.

The 13 kills marked a career-high for the 6-4, outside attacker Sprague, who also tallied eight digs in the match to fall just shy of his first career double-double.

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 13-9 on the year and remain in second place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association with a 5-2 league ledger. Quincy falls to 5-21 (2-6 MIVA) with the loss.

“Overall, I thought we turned in a solid team performance, and had our offense clicking in games one and two,” said head coach Joel Walton. “Individually, I thought Sprague passed well for us again tonight, and hit for a good percentage. For him to tie Nick in kills tonight shows how good of a match he played.”

The Cardinals did a great job of slowing down the Quincy offense in the win, limiting the Hawks to a .117 (36-24-103) attack percentage with no players recording more than eight kills. In the first meeting of the season at Quincy (March 2), a 3-2 BSU win, the Hawks hit .226 (65-27-168) and had four players record double-figure kills.

“Our team came out with a lot of focus tonight,” continued Walton. “We were able to do a good job following the game plan, slowing down both Peter Coley and John Markendorf who hurt us at their place earlier this season.”

Sophomore Matt McCarthy (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South H.S.) also smashed double-figure kills for the Cardinals, collecting 11 to go along with a match-high tying four total blocks. McCarthy paced all players with a .625 (11-1-16) attack percentage.

The first game saw the teams battle to a 5-5 tie before Meyer scored three of the next five points for the Cardinals, with a pair of kills and a solo block, to make the score 10-5. Quincy would draw within three points at 13-10, only to see kills from McCarthy and Sprague, surrounding a solo block from freshman Jeff Schmitz (Fenton, Mo./St. John Vianney), push the score to 16-10.

Meyer's fifth kill of the game gave Ball State a 10-point advantage at the 27-17 mark, while Sprague ended the game at 30-18 with his fourth kill of the set.

The second stanza opened with the Hawks taking a 7-4 advantage, only to see the Cardinals rally off six of the next eight points to take a 10-9 lead. During the rally, McCarthy added a pair of kills and combined with Meyer for a block assists, while BSU sophomore Ryan Clarke (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South H.S.) smashed one of his two kills on the night.

The Cardinals went on to build a four-point advantage at 16-12, and a five-point lead at 25-20. However, the Hawks rallied off four-straight points to climb within a marker at 25-24. After the teams traded the next six points, the Cardinals received kills from Meyer and McCarthy to win the set at 30-27.

With the Cardinals holding a 3-2 advantage in the third game, all doubt was removed about the out come of the match when McCarthy smashed his 11th kill of the night to spark a 7-0 BSU run that put the hosts ahead 10-3. After the McCarthy kill, Meyer racked-up back-to-back service aces before ending the run with a kill.

The Cardinals first 10-point lead came off a Sprague kill at 14-4. At that point, the Cardinals turned to the bench and ended the game with a lineup that included four freshman and two sophomores.

During the final run, freshman Ben Irwin (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove H.S.) smashed back-to-back kills to give BSU a 20-11 lead and logged a solo block to push the score to 27-19. The Cardinals would win the game 30-20 on kills from freshman Eric Schulte (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood H.S.) and sophomore Mark Termion (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North H.S.).

Ball State junior libero Ian Peckler (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills H.S.) paced all players with nine digs in the victory, while senior Mark Rumschik (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park H.S.) added six digs, three total blocks and three kills.

BSU's Clarke ended the contest tied with McCarthy for match-high honors with four total blocks.

As a team, the Cardinals posted a .304 (48-17-102) attack percentage, with Schmitz handing out a match-best 33 assists and fellow freshman setter Ethan Pheister (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood H.S.) dishing out seven.

Also factoring in the win for the Cardinals were sophomore Justin Orr (Gladstone, Mo./Winnetonka H.S.) with a kill and a dig, and freshman Billy Ebel (Lenexa, Ka./Bishop Miege H.S.).

In addition to out-hitting Quincy, the Cardinals lead 36-to-31 in digs, 12-to-4 in blocks and 3-to-0 in aces.

Robbie Coughlin paced the Hawks with eight kills on the night, while Mike Contee collected a team-high eight digs.

The No. 15 Ball State men's volleyball team continues league play tomorrow night, when Mercyhurst visits Worthen Arena for a 7:30 p.m. showdown. Admission to the match is FREE.

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Clarke

Billy Ebel

Ben Irwin

Matt McCarthy

Nick Meyer

Justin Orr

Ian Peckler

Ethan Pheister

Mark Rumschik

Jeff Schmitz

Eric Schulte

Matt Sprague

Mark Termion