Conference News

No. 9 Penn State Squeezes Past No. 15 Ball State, 3-2

No. 9 Penn State Squeezes Past No. 15 Ball State, 3-2

MUNCIE, Ind., April 1, 2010 – The ninth-ranked Penn State men’s volleyball team earned a 3-2 (20-30, 30-28, 30-23, 26-30, 15-10) win against No. 15 Ball State. The Nittany Lions are back in action on Friday at IPFW. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m.
 
Senior Will Price (Gaithersburg, Md.) led the Lions with 22 kills, while senior Max Lipsitz (Williamsville, N.Y.) had 16 and redshirt sophomore Joe Sunder (Greensburg, Pa.) had 15. Redshirt sophomore Edgardo Goas (San Juan, Puerto Rico) dished out 58 assists. Junior libero Dennis Del Valle (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico) led the team with 19 digs and sophomore Ryan Wolf (York, Pa.) registered 12. Freshman Nick Turko (Lewisberry, Pa.) and Wolf led the team at the net with four blocks apiece.
 
Ball State outhit the Nittany Lions with a .305 attack percentage to Penn State’s .240. PSU, however, finished the match with 69 kills, four aces, 59 digs and 11.0 team blocks. The Cardinals posted 67 kills, three aces, 54 digs and 12.0 team blocks.
 
The Cardinals were on the board first with a kill from Eric Schulte. Penn State tied the score four times before another Schulte kill and a PSU attack error put the Cardinals in front, 6-4. A 6-1 run by BSU midway through the set had the Cardinals leading 19-12. Ball State’s lead continued to grow and Schulte notched another kills for a 25-16 lead near the end of set one. Penn State put down just three more kills and had one block before Ball State closed out set one with a 30-20 win.
 
The second set started out close with the score tying eight times before Penn State used kills by Goas and Price for a 16-13 advantage. The Cardinals fought to within one on three occasions, but the Lions capitalized on a Lipsitz kill and two BSU errors to hang on to a three-point lead, 22-19. Ball State would not go away, but the Lions used kills from Price, Wolf and Turko to have a 28-25 lead. Despite two Schulte kills for BSU, Price put one away for the Lions before a Ball State service error secured a 30-28 win for the Lions in set two.
 
The third set started out much like the second. Neither team was able to develop any sort of lead until two straight Sunder aces put PSU up 8-6. Penn State would maintain the lead for the remainder of the set. Halfway through the set, two straight Ball State kills and a PSU service error had the Cardinals within one, 16-15. Penn State then used a 5-0 run for a 21-15 lead. Price and Wolf each had a kill in the run. The Cardinals cut the PSU lead to four, 23-19, before Sunder and Price each put down a kill to increase PSU’s lead to 26-19. One kill by Sunder and two from Price put the Lions in set-point position before a BSU error gave PSU a 30-23 third set victory.
 
The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the fourth set with Lipsitz tallying three kills early on. A 4-0 Ball State run put the Cardinals within two, 9-7. A short time later, three Ball State errors had Penn State up by four, 14-10, but Ball State answered right back with a kill and an ace to sit within two, 14-12. Penn State’s lead once again grew to six, 19-13, after a 5-1 PSU run. The Lions’ momentum suddenly disappeared as the Cardinals used a 4-0 run to tie the set at 23-23. A Ball State service error put Penn State back in front, 24-23, a kill from J.D. Gasparovic tied the set again at 24-24. The Cardinals grabbed the lead, 26-25 after back-to-back kills from Larry Wrather. A Penn State timeout failed to slow the Cardinals, who closed out the set with a 4-1 run for a 30-26 win forcing a fifth set.
 
Penn State wasted no time in the final set and grabbed a 5-1 advantage. The Nittany Lions held on to a four-point lead until two PSU erros and two BSU kills had the Cardinals within one, 9-8. The Cardinals did not give up easily and stayed within two of the Nittany Lions until a Price ace made it 12-9 in favor of PSU. Kills by Goas and Price and a BSU error secured the set for Penn State, 15-10.