Ball State University
Ohio State
No. 15 Men's Volleyball Smashes No. 6 Ohio State
April 14, 2007 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - The No. 15 Ball State men's volleyball team closed its 2007 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association slate with a dominating 3-1 (30-23, 31-29, 30-18, 30-27) upset of No. 6 Ohio State Friday evening at Worthen Arena.
The loss was just the Buckeyes third of the season, as they fell to 21-3 (9-2 MIVA). The Cardinals improved to 16-11 (8-4 MIVA) with the win. BSU ends its league schedule tied with No. 11 Loyola for third, but will enter next week's MIVA Tournament as the fourth seed after losing the season series with the Ramblers.
Todd Chamberlain (Louisville, Ky./Trinity H.S.) led all players with a career-high 20 kills in the match. He also scored five digs and a pair of assists, while hitting for a .375 (20-5-40) rate of success.
Joining Chamberlain with double-figure kills for Ball State were Nick Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller H.S.) and Matt McCarthy (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South H.S.) with 14 and 11, respectively.
Meyer tacked on a career-high tying seven block assists, eight digs, two assists and a service ace to his stat line, while McCarthy finished the night with three blocks, three digs and an ace.
Ryan Clarke (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South H.S.) added eight kills, six blocks and three digs in the win, while Mark Rumschik (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park H.S.) added seven kills, five blocks, five digs and an ace.
Ethan Pheister (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood H.S.), who was making his first start at setter for BSU since the third match of the season, dished out a career-high tying 47 assists, while guiding the BSU offense to a .245 (61-26-143) attack percentage.
Junior libero Ian Peckler (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills H.S.) led all players with 15 digs in the match, passing head coach Joel Walton for seventh on BSU's career digs list with 720. Walton logged 710 digs during his playing career at Ball State from 1985-88.
In the opening game, the Cardinals found themselves trailing by seven points at the 23-16 mark, before a Rumschik kill, set up by a Meyer assists, sparked a seven-point BSU rally to tie the set at 23-23. Meyer added another assist in the run, while serving six of BSU's points. McCarthy also played a large role in the run, smashing three kills and adding a block assist.
From there, the Cardinals were able to build a 27-25 lead in the game, as back-to-back Chamberlain kills broke a 25-25 tie. Ohio State battled back to tie the set at 28, before Meyer gave BSU its first of two game points at 29-28. OSU's Sam Stevens saved the first game point for the Buckeyes, only to see Meyer smash another kill to push the score to 30-29. Unfortunately, Ohio State would tally the final three points of the game, winning the set 32-30.
In the second stanza, the teams battled back-and-forth to a 14-14 tie. This time it was the Cardinals who made the first big push, pulling ahead by as many as six points at the 28-22 mark. However, it was the Buckeyes who mounted the comeback in the second game, as they rattled off seven of the next eight points to tie the game at 29.
Ohio State would not score again in the game, however, as a service error and an attack error ended the set at 31-29 in favor of the Cardinals.
After the seven-minute break, Ball State came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the third game. Ohio State drew as close as four points at 9-5, only to see BSU take a 10-point lead at 21-11.
The Cardinals played to a 27-18 edge in the set, before the serving of Rumschik forced three-straight Buckeye errors to end the game at 30-18. During the set, the BSU defense limited Ohio State to a -.290 (4-13-31) attack percentage.
In the fourth and final frame, the teams played to a 12-12 tie before an OSU attack error, followed by a McCarthy kill gave the hosts an advantage they would not relinquish the rest of the game.
The Cardinals lead by as many as five points, at 24-19, but the Buckeyes hung in the match, trailing by just one at 28-27. However, Meyer and Chamberlain tallied back-to-back kills to complete the upset of No. 6 Ohio State in front of a very vocal 1,093 fans at Worthen Arena.
Justin Orr (Gladstone, Mo./Winnetonka H.S.) played an huge role in the fourth game, recording three blocks assists and a kill, while serving match point and adding a dig in the rally to set up Chamberlain's match-winning kill.
Billy Ebel (Lenexa, Ka./Bishop Miege H.S.) provided a pair of clutch serves in game-two, while Mark Termion (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North H.S.) entered the match as a serving sub in all four games.
Overall, the Cardinals managed to out-hit the Buckeyes .245 to .162 (58-35-142) in the contest. However, OSU held a 47-to-43 lead in digs, a 16-to-14 advantage in blocks and a 6-to-5 edge in aces.
Brett Versen and Robbie Klein each logged 15 kills for Ohio State, while Stevens added 10. Versen and Stevens each added 10 digs for a double-double in the contest, while Conor Martin scored a team-best 13 digs.
Ball State will end the 2007 regular season tomorrow night with a 7:30 p.m. match-up versus Rutgers-Newark. The contest will serve as senior night for Meyer and Rumschik. As always, admission to the match is FREE!!!
