MVB Takes Home Five-Set Thriller Against PFW to Remain atop of the MIVA Standings

Saturday, March 23

Fort Wayne, IN

7 pm

Ball State University

Purdue Fort Wayne

Ball State vs. Tusculum, Men's Volleyball

Photo by: Collin Phillips/Ball State Athletics

MVB Takes Home Five-Set Thriller Against PFW to Remain atop of the MIVA Standings

March 23, 2024 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - It was an intense match against the two interstate Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association rivals which saw the No. 12 Ball State men's volleyball team take a five-set thriller (18-25, 25-23, 26-24, 27-29, 15-11) against longtime rival Purdue Fort Wayne Saturday night at the Gates Sports Center.

With the win, Ball State remains atop of the MIVA standings with an overall record of 17-8 and a league mark of 10-2 while Purdue Fort Wayne drops to 11-10 on the year and 5-7 in conference action.

Tonight's contest was close from start to finish, consisting of 47 ties and 16 lead changes.

At first, the Mastodons carried their momentum throughout the first frame of action winning easily by a score of 25-18 after dominating offensively with a .500 hitting accuracy from the floor.

The tides then turned in the second and third frames, although close late in both sets, Ball State took confident leads in both allowing the Cardinals to jump ahead to a 2-1 edge over Purdue Fort Wayne.

It was the fourth set that got a little tricky. Ball State went up 18-14 off a kill from Vanis Buckholz late in the stanza. The Cardinals continued to move forward after some PFW errors to push BSU's lead even further, 20-15. Purdue Fort Wayne then came back to take a 21-20 advantage. From that point forward, the set was a back-and-forth affair which saw missed opportunities for Ball State to win the match. Unfortunately, the Mastodons completed their comeback to send the match into overtime.

In the final set the score was knotted 9-9 as both teams were neck-and-neck. But Dyer Ball would come through with two huge kills to put the Cardinals in a strong position 12-10 for a possible victory. Ball State was able to hold off PFW from another comeback and Tinaishe Ndavazocheva would seal the win with a kill for match point.

Ndavazocheva finished the match with a season best 25 kills off 55 swings for a .382 hitting percentage while Ryan Bartz finished the night with 14 kills. The Cardinals' setter Lucas Machado dished out 51 assists for a .495 accuracy while leading the squad with 15 digs.

The Ball State men's volleyball team will play two matches on the road next week at Lewis starting Thursday night. First serve is at 8 pm ET.