Muncie, Ind. - - The No. 15 Ball State (1-1) men's volleyball team saw its bid for an upset over No. 8 Penn State (1-0) fall short Friday evening, as the Cardinals suffered a 3-0 (30-28, 30-22, 30-22) setback to the Nittany Lions at Worthen Arena.
In the loss, sophomore Todd Chamberlain (Louisville, Ky./Trinity H.S.) paced the BSU offense with 15 kills, while adding a match-best four total blocks. He also tallied four digs and a pair of assists.
Despite out-hitting the Nittany Lions .250 (16-6-40) to .206 (13-6-34) in the opening set, the Cardinals were unable to overcome seven service errors, dropping the game 30-28.
BSU held a 22-20 advantage late in the game, only to see the visitors rally off four-straight points to take a 24-22 lead. BSU would answer back with kills from senior Nick Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller H.S.) and Chamberlain - - sandwiching a PSU attack error - - to regain the edge at 25-24.
Penn State would respond with four of the next five markers to pull ahead 28-26. A triple block from Chamberlain, Meyer and sophomore Ryan Clarke (Ballwin, Mo./Parkway South H.S.) would get BSU within one again at 28-27, but service errors on two of the final three plays gave the visitors the game win.
In the second stanza, BSU's serving continued to struggle, as four of PSU's first five points were on service errors. After a kill from Chamberlain tied the score at 6-6, the Nittany Lions would rally off the next three points and never trail again. BSU was able to cut the gap to one point, at 13-12, only to see a seven-point Penn State run put the game out of reach. PSU would win the set 30-22.
The third game saw the teams play to an 11-11 tie before a ball handling error on the Penn State setter gave BSU a 12-11 advantage. The one-point lead would be the Cardinals last of the night however, as the Nittany Lions scored the next five points on the way to a 30-22 game victory.
Meyer would finish the night with five kills, as the Penn State defense keyed on shutting down BSU's top attacker. However, Meyer would tie for team-high honors with seven digs, while adding three block assists.
Clarke finished the match with four kills, while also scoring three block assists.
Sophomore Matt McCarthy (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South H.S.) would tie Meyer with five kills, while freshman Matt Sprague (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette H.S.) tied Clarke with four.
Freshman setter Ethan Pheister (Shorewood, Wis./Shorewood H.S.) tallied 26 assists in the match, while scoring his first two career kills in the opening set. He also logged a block, an ace and a dig.
Junior libero Ian Peckler (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills H.S.) would tie Meyer for team-high honors with seven digs in the match.
Also factoring in the loss for Ball State were: senior Mark Rumschik (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park H.S.); senior Doug Willmann (St. Louis, Mo./Francis Howell North H.S.) with a block assists, sophomore Mark Termion (Winfield, Mo./Wheaton North H.S.) with three digs, a kill and an assist; sophomore Justin Orr (Gladstone, Mo./Winnetonka H.S.) and freshman Billy Ebel (Lenexa, Ka./Bishop Miege H.S.) with his first career service ace.
Alex Gutor paced two players with double-figure kills for the Nittany Lions, with a match-best 17 on the night. Matt Anderson would add 11 kills, while Ryan Walthall scored a match-best 11 digs.
As a team, the Cardinals were out-hit .151 (36-20-106) to .323 (48-17-96) in the match. Penn State also held statistical advantages in total blocks (8 to 6.5), digs (40 to 27) and aces (5 to 2).
The Cardinals will have to rebound from the loss quickly, as they host 2006 EIVA Tournament runner-up St. Francis Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
