Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
11-7
Carthage
4-24
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carthage | 23 | 23 | 30 | 0 |
| Ball State | 30 | 30 | 32 | 3 |
Men?s Volleyball Snaps Skid With Sweep Of Carthage
March 18, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - The Ball State men's volleyball team snapped its streak of five-game losses with a 3-0 (30-23, 30-23 32-30) sweep of visiting Carthage Tuesday evening at Worthen Arena. With the win, BSU improves to 11-7, while CC drops to 4-24 with the loss.
Ball State sophomore Lee Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller H.S.) tied his season-high with nine kills to pace a Ball State offense which tallied 52 total kills and a .222 (52-28-108) attack percentage. Meyer hit .467 (9-2-15) for the night, while adding five digs, four blocks and a service ace.
Fellow Moeller graduate James Emming (West Chester, Ohio/Moeller H.S.) also had a solid attacking night for the Cardinals, racking up a career-high eight kills, with all eight coming in the third game. He also logged five digs, an ace and a block in the win, while hitting .357 (8-3-14).
At the net, the Cardinals posted 11.5 team blocks, with sophomore transfer Andy Nelson (St. Croix Falls, Wis./St. Croix Falls H.S.) posting a career-high nine block assists. Nelson also tagged five kills in the victory.
Tim Walker was Carthage's top attacker, blasting nine kills, while Wojciech Snarski added seven. The Red Men finished the contest with a .062 (28-22-96) attack percentage and 10.0 team blocks. Matt Yanz paced the Carthage block with six block assists.
Matt Sprague (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette H.S.) was the Cardinals top backcourt defender, racking up eight digs, while libero Mark Termion (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North H.S.) added a season-high tying seven digs. Carthage's Tyler Berry and Eric Ball tied for team-high honors with eight digs each.
The match opened with the teams battling to a 2-2 tie, before some strong serving from J.D. Gasparovic (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville H.S.) and Dominic Spadavecchio (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd H.S.) helped the Cardinals post an 11-1 run to take control of the set. Todd Chamberlain (Louisville, Ky./Trinity H.S.) added three of his five kills in the run.
From there, BSU pulled ahead by 14 points at the 24-10 mark on a Ben Irwin (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove H.S.) service ace. Carthage followed with a 13-4 run, capped by a Ball ace, to draw within five at 28-23, but a Spadavecchio kill and CC attack error ended the game at 30-23.
Carthage controlled the early portion of the second stanza, pulling ahead by seven points at the 10-3 mark, thanks in part to two service aces and six Ball State errors. With the Red Men lead still at five at the 16-11 mark, back-to-back Meyer kills and three block assists from Nelson - - who combined with Meyer on the first, Marcus Imwalle (Maria Stein, Ohio/Marion Local H.S.) on the second and both Meyer and Imwalle on the third - - helped the Cardinals rally off the next seven points and take an 18-16 advantage.
Carthage managed to tie the score on two more occasions, 18-18 and 19-19, before the Cardinals rattled off 11 of the final 15 points to win the game 30-23. Imwalle capped the set with a kill.
Thanks to a pair of kills from Imwalle, an Ethan Pheister (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood H.S.) service ace and the first of eight Emming kills in the set, the Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the third game. Ball State still looked in control with a five-point lead at the 16-11 mark, only to see Carthage rally and eventually tie the set at 21.
With the score tied at 22, a Carthage service error, a kill from Daniel Penrod (Selma, Ind./Wapahani H.S.) and a block assists from Nelson and Emming pushed the score to 25-22 in favor of the hosts. However, the guests responded by tying the score at 28 after a block assists from Walker and Randy Hansen.
A Meyer kill gave BSU its first chance at match point, but back-to-back Walker kills flipped the score to 30-29 and gave Carthage a chance to force a fourth game. After a Ball State timeout, Meyer and Emming tagged back-to-back kills to give BSU its second match point at 31-30. This time a Carthage attack error ended the game at 32-30 and the match at 3-0.
The Ball State men's volleyball team returns to the road Friday with a 7 p.m. match at Rutgers-Newark, which it swept earlier this season. Saturday, the Cardinals will look to avenge an earlier loss this season versus George Mason with another 7 p.m. start at the home of the Patriots.
