MATCH STATS
- No. 15 Ball State overpowers No. 14 Penn State 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-17, 25-18)
- Ball State (4-1), Penn State (1-2)
No. 15 Ball State Cardinals took down No. 15 Penn State Nittany Lions 3-1 Friday night in the final match of the Shondell Active Ankle Challenge in Indiana.
Ball State handled some unknown players from Penn State to take the first set. Cardinal Matt Szews led the first set with 5 kills.
Penn State appeared to hit their stride in the second set, only allowing Ball State to lead once, and took the second set 25-20. However, Ball State rallied to finally overpower the Nittany Lions in the third and fourth sets.
Cardinals Brendan Surane and Szews finished with 14 kills each.
Ball State moves to 4-1 and will face Harvard Jan. 20.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy of Ball State
MUNCIE, Ind.– The No. 15 Ball State men’s volleyball team concluded the annual Shondell Active Ankle Challenge with a 3-1 victory over No. 14 Penn State Friday night.
“The guys did a good job with defense tonight,” said head coach Joel Walton. “Penn State has a lot of players we haven’t seen and we wanted to keep the pressure on their side of the net. I was pleased to see our guys come back out and play aggressive in sets three and four.”
With yet another powerful performance from freshman Matt Szews, who led the team in the opening set with five kills, the Cardinals took set one with a final score of 25-19. The team finished the opening set with 12 total kills and a .385 attack percentage.
The Nittany Lions rallied back and controlled set two. The Cardinals only led once in the set and fell with a final score of 25-20.
Ball State came out after the ten minute break and won sets three and four. The Cardinals had 14 kills, 14 digs and eight block assists, winning the set three 25-17. Senior Connor Gross had 11 assists in set four helping the Cardinals to a 25-18 victory.
Senior Brendan Surane and Matt Szews both led the team with 14 kills in the contest. Surane also added seven digs while Szews knocked down four block assists. Szews now leads the team with 68 kills and Surane is second on the team with 51. Mitch Weiler, who had the match winning kill, is third on the team with 36 kills.
Up Next: The 15th ranked Cardinals move to 4-1 on the season and will be in action again Friday, Jan. 20 at Harvard. Match time is set for 7 p.m.
Cardinal Stats
Brendan Surane (14 kills, 1 ace)
Matt Szews (14 kills, 1 ace, 4 blocks)
Matt Walsh (7 kills, 2 aces, 4 blocks)
Mitch Weiler (6 kills, 4 blocks)
Follow Ball State @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB.
Courtesy of Penn State
MUNCIE, IN – The No. 14 men’s volleyball team fell to Ball State 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 17-25, 18-25) Friday night in the closing match of the Shondell Active Ankle Challenge Friday night at John E. Worthen Arena.
Chris Nugent led the Lions in kills racking up 17 on the night hitting at a .289 clip and adding seven digs defensively.
Kevin Gear hit a season high .455 recording six kills and a team high six blocks.
Luke Braswell and Royce Clemens each had 11 digs with Braswell pouring in 43 assist as well.
Penn State also tallied 10.0 team blocks, the second most this season.
Penn State (1-2) opened the match with a 19-25 first set loss behind seven team attack errors hitting .207 as a team while Ball State (4-1) committed only two errors and hit .385 for the set behind the arm of Matt Szews.
Set two saw the Nittany Lions jump out to a 6-2 lead behind kills from Chris Nugent, Calvin Mende and Kevin Gear paired with two Cardinals attack errors and a service error to open the set.
Ball State crawled back to tie it up at 17-17, 18-18 and 19-19 despite committing a game high eight attack errors in the second set. Penn State capped the set and evened the game at 1-1 heading into the break on a kill from Gear.
Out of the break it was all Ball State as the Cardinals led from beginning to end of the third set winning 25-17, before taking the fourth set ending the game on a 14-8 run.
Up Next: Penn State will return to action tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET as they take on the Mastodons of IPFW in Fort Wayne, IN at Hilliard Gates Sports Center.
Nittany Lions Numbers
Chris Nugent (17 kills, 7 digs, 1 block)
Calvin Mende (9 kills, 2 assists, 4 digs, 4 blocks)
Royce Clemens (2 assists, 11 digs)
Luke Braswell (41 assists, 11 digs, 2 blocks)
Follow Penn State on Twitter @PennStateMVBall.
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