Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
9-8
UC - Irvine
18-3
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State | 16 | 28 | 18 | 0 |
| UC Irvine | 25 | 30 | 25 | 3 |
No. 3 UC-Irvine Edges Men?s Volleyball In A 3-0 Loss
March 07, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
IRVINE, Calif. - - The No. 12 Ball State (9-8, 4-3 MIVA) men's volleyball team suffered its third sweep in a row Saturday evening with a 3-0 (16-25, 28-30, 18-25) final against No. 3 UC-Irvine (18-3, 12-2 MPSF), while the Anteaters gathered their ninth consecutive win.
Dominating the Cardinals' offense was senior Shane Witmer who tallied 11 kills on 19 attempts for a .368 attack percentage. Witmer's attack lead to twice as many kills by any single Cardinal in the three set match, making it his fifth match of the season posting 10 or more and marked his second match in a row with 11 kills.
Following up Witmer was senior Matt Sutherland and freshman Matt Walsh who posted five kills and one dig each. Walsh also downed attacks with two block assists.
The Cardinals were able to battle for extra points in the second set going to 30, with the major turnaround of attack percentage of -.033 in the first set to .389 in the second set, though ultimately dropped the second 30-28. It was the closest scoring of the night, with the other two sets putting up scores of 16 and 18 for the Cards.
At the line, junior Hiago Garchet downed two of the Cardinals' four aces, while at the net he tallied 28 assists, one solo block and two block assists.
Ball State's reception was tackled by a variation when Witmer, Garchet and junior Marcin Niemczewski each posted seven digs, while senior libero David Ryan Vander Meer put up eight digs, and received an error-free 22 shots.
Ball State suffered from 10 service errors and 19 attack errors compared to Irvine's 12 service errors paired with nine attack errors.
The Anteaters held the advantage in kills (49-36), attack percentage (.417-.175), digs (35-31), and blocks (9.0-3.5), despite narrowly falling in total attacks to the Cardinals (97-96).
The Ball State men's volleyball team will round its 10-day road series when it travels to LaJolla, Calif. to take on UC-San Diego on Saturday, Mar. 7 at 7 p.m. pacific time.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State men's volleyball, follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB on Twitter and Instagram.
