Box Score MUNCIE, Ind. – The Sacred Heart men's volleyball team took the opening set from 15th ranked Ball State, 25-22, before falling in three close sets, 25-23, 25-21, 25-22, on Thursday night at Worthen Arena. The third ranked team that SHU has faced in four games, the Pioneers are now 0-4 this season.
Ahead 19-14, Ball State (2-1) looked to be cruising to a fourth set victory to clinch the match, but Sacred Heart battled back with three straight points, making the score 19-17 on a Travis Cundiff kill. That was the first of six two-point leads in the final 11 points of the set, two of which came after a Michael Comens kill. Each time the Cardinals would respond though, as the Pioneers could never manage to get within one point.
Sacred Heart had six more kills than Ball State, 54-48, but committed ten more errors, 27-17. After hitting a combined .377 in the opening two sets, including .400 in the first, the Pioneers managed to hit just .101 in the final two. In addition to holding a .279-.221 advantage in hitting percentage, the Cardinals recorded 14 blocks to SHU's eight.
Chris Delucie led Sacred Heart in kills for the fourth match in a row, setting a new career-high and leading all players with 16, while also leading the team with 3.0 blocks. Also with new career bests in kills were Cundiff and Taylor Bloomquist, as the two finished with 9 and 7, respectively. Michael Comens added 13 kills and Doug Dzema had six on a team-best .417 hitting. Eduardo Zardo led the team with 45 assists and Joshua Ayzenberg tallied a team-high 12 digs.
With 13 kills, Brendan Surane was the lone Cardinal in double digits. Alex Pia led the blocking attack with a match-high seven blocks assists.
SHU ends its road trip tomorrow, traveling to IPFW for a 7 pm start.
How it Happened
- First Set- Tied at 19, Delucie followed a Ball State error with a kill to put Sacred Heart ahead by two. Twice Ball State would pull within one, including at 23-22, but Dzema closed the set with a kill and service ace to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead.
- Second Set- SHU looked to be on its way to a 2-0 lead as it went ahead 17-14 on a Bloomquist kill, but Ball State responded with six of the next seven points for a 20-18 lead. Back-to-back kills by Bloomquist tied things back up and the Pioneers even took the lead, 22-21, on a Cardinal error that capped a 4-1 run. Again Ball State came though, tallying four of the final five points in the set with Surane and Jack Lesure recording kills for a 25-23 triumph.
- Third Set- Sacred Heart led by as many as three early, but Ball State turned the tide with a 7-1 run to take a 13-10 lead and would eventually lead 18-15. The Pioneers stormed back to tie it at 18-18 on consecutive kills from Cundiff and Delucie before the Cardinals answered with three of the next four points for a 21-19 lead. Twice SHU got within one, at 21-20 and 22-21, but Ball State scored the final three points of the set, two coming on Pioneer errors, for a 25-21 win.
