Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
1-4
George Mason
3-1
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Mason | 30 | 30 | 30 | 3 |
| Ball State | 25 | 26 | 24 | 0 |
No. 13 Men?s Volleyball Swept By George Mason
February 06, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - Despite a pair of players with double-figure kills, the No. 13 Ball State men's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 (30-25, 30-26, 30-24) setback to George Mason Thursday night at Worthen Arena.
With the loss, the Cardinals drop to 1-4 on the season, while the Patriots improve to 3-1.
“I thought George Mason played a very good, consistent match start to finish,” said Ball State head coach Joel Walton. “They really played well defensively. It seemed like when they needed a play, they were coming up with a big dig and then transitioning out. The other area we failed to win tonight was the long rallies. We could not come up with those and George Mason made a lot of plays in the long rallies which really took the wind out of our sails.”
Todd Chamberlain (Louisville, Ky./Trinity H.S.) paced the Ball State offense with 12 kills, while J.D. Gasparovic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville H.S.) continued his hot attacking, smashing 10 kills while hitting for a .562 (10-1-16) rate of success.
Unlike last Friday's match versus Lewis however, it was the Patriots block that controlled the pace of the match, as they racked up 13 total blocks, including seven in the final game, compared to just two for the Cardinals. George Mason entered the contest as the top blocking team in the nation with a 4.32 block-per-game average.
GMU's Kyle Gramit paced all players with 14 kills on the night, while Ben Nichols added 10 and Erik Lanham was perfect on the night with seven kills on seven swings. Brandon McLaughlin top the Patriot's block with seven block assists, while Lanham, the nation's leading blocker, was limited to just two block assists.
Both of the team's liberos, Billy Ebel (Lenexa, Kan./Bishop Miege H.S.) for BSU and Eric Lucas for GMU, tallied nine digs in the match.
The opening game was the closest of the night, with 22 ties and nine lead changes. Ball State was the first to reach 20 points on a kill from Dominic Spadavecchio (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd H.S.), while Mark Termion (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North H.S.) gave BSU a 23-22 lead with a service ace. However, Gramit added kills on two of the next three plays to give the guests a 25-23 lead. From there, the Patriots went on to win the set 30-25 on a kill from Lanham.
George Mason took control of the second set early, pulling ahead by six at the 12-6 mark. The lead remained six at 17-11, before the Cardinals battled back within one at 21-20 thanks in part to a pair of kills each from Chamberlain and Gasparovic. Unfortunately, GMU responded with three of the next four points and went on to win the frame 30-26 on a BSU over pass that went long.
In the third stanza, the teams battled to a 19-19 tie before the Patriots rallied off the next five points and forced BSU to use both of its timeouts. The Cardinals fought back within two points at 25-23, but could not get any closer, losing the set 30-24 on a match-winning service ace from Ryan Kwiatkowski. One highlight for the Cardinals in the final set was the play of Matt Sprague (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette H.S.) who came off the bench to record four kills, a pair of digs and a service ace.
The Ball State men's volleyball team will look to rebound from the loss tomorrow (Friday), when it returns to action with a 7:30 p.m. match versus Rutgers-Newark at Worthen Arena.
“We have another important match tomorrow night against Rutgers-Newark,” added Walton. “We need to show up and be ready to play.”
