Jan. 16, 2015
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MUNCIE, Ind. - Despite a career-high effort from senior Aaron Russell, No. 10 Penn State men's volleyball (0-3) fell short in a 3-2 (31-29, 25-22, 24-26, 19-25, 12-15) loss on the road at Ball State (3-0) Friday evening.
Russell led all hitters with a career-high 32 kills on .439 hitting, while also adding a team-high three aces to go along with five digs and three blocks. The 30-kill performance is the first of Russell's career.
Redshirt senior Nick Goodell finished second on the team with 15 kills, adding 14 digs for a double- double. Redshirt junior Matt Seifert and redshirt sophomore Spencer Sauter each put down nine kills. Sauter added 10 digs to finish third on the team in the category, while Seifert tallied three blocks.
Redshirt senior Connor Curry anchored the defense with a season-high 17 digs.
Tied at 4-4 in set one, Penn State followed a BSU attack error with a kill from Goodell to build a two-point cushion, 6-4, forcing the Cardinals to call an early timeout. Sauter came out of the break with a kill and an ace to extend the lead to four, 8-4. Ball State cut off the streak with three consecutive kills to narrow the margin to one, 8-7. The Nittany lions answered back with kills from Seifert and Russell to stay on top, 10-7.
Ball State came battling back, chipping away at the lead with a 6-4 stretch to arrive within one, 14-13. Keeping it close, the two teams continued to trade points until a Cardinal ace knotted the frame, 16-16, prompting Penn State to call a timeout. Goodell pulled the Nittany Lions ahead with a kill out of the break, but Ball State answered with a kill to keep the set tied, 17-17. Russell looked to spark some momentum with a block and a kill to bring the Nittany Lions ahead, 19-17, but Ball State followed with a kill and an ace to tie the score once again, 19-19.
Penn State fired back with three straight, capped off by a kill and an ace from Russell to push the Nittany Lions up, 22-19. PSU couldn't shake the Cardinals as Ball State responded with a 3-0 spurt to knot the stanza, 22-22, forcing the Nittany Lions to call their final timeout of the set. Penn State and Ball State traded points out of the break to keep the score tied, 23-23, but a BSU service error gave Penn State set point, 24-23. With neither team able to capitalize, PSU and BSU tied it up six more times to keep the score locked at 29-29. Goodell and Seifert followed with back-to-back kills to lock up a 31-29 win in set one.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 lead in set two, causing the Nittany Lions to call an early timeout. Goodell halted the momentum with a kill, but BSU answered with a 4-1 strike to widen the advantage to six, 8-2. Rallying, Penn State used a 6-1 streak, capped off by two consecutive kills from both Russell and Seifert to cut the Cardinal lead to one, 9-8. Ball State looked to break up the rhythm with a timeout, but Penn State came out of the huddle with a 3-1 stretch to move ahead, 11-10.
Both teams struggled to pull ahead with the lead, keeping the score tied. Knotted at 14-14, PSU broke open the tie with a 3-1 run to move up by two, 17-15. The Cardinals came storming back with a 3-1 strike to knot the score, 18-18. Penn State and Ball State exchanged four more points to keep the frame locked.
Tied at 20-20, an ace from Zack Parik and a kill from Russell lifted the Nittany Lions ahead by two, 22-20, forcing Ball State to call a timeout. The Nittany Lions came out of the timeout with a kill and a block to arrive at set point, 24-20. The Cardinals held off two attempts before a kill from Russell secured a 25-22 win in the second set to put Penn State up 2-0 in the match.
Following some early back-and-forth action in set three, Ball State cracked open a 4-all tie with three straight to take over the advantage, 7-4. The Nittany Lions cut off the streak with a kill, 7-5, but the Cardinals followed with a 4-1 strike to stretch the lead to five, 11-6. Penn State rebounded with four unanswered points to move within one, 11-10, prompting Ball State to call a timeout. Despite trading service errors out of the break, Sauter put down a kill to push Penn State up by one, 12-11.
The Nittany Lions couldn't put together a run to take control of the lead, tying the score five more times until Russell and Goodell broke open a 16-all tie with two kills to bring PSU ahead, 18-16, causing the Cardinals to call their final timeout of the set.
Penn State managed to maintain the lead, 21-19, until a 3-1 Ball State spurt put the Cardinal on top, 22-21, causing the Nittany Lions to call a timeout. BSU came out of the break firing, using a 2-1 burst to make it set point, 24-22. Penn State thwarted two attempts, but could not hold off Ball State as the Cardinals took set three, 26-24.
Trailing for most of the fourth set Penn State evened the score at 11-11 on a kill from Goodell. The Nittany Lions couldn't pull away as Ball State totaled three in a row to go up 14-11. Sauter looked to halt the momentum with a kill, but the Cardinals put down two more to extend the lead to four, 16-12, causing Penn State to take a timeout. Ball State came out of the break with a 3-1 run to go up by as many as six, 19-13.
PSU followed with three straight to trim the lead back to three, 19-16, but BSU came right back with a kill an ace and a block to make it 22-16. The Nittany Lions couldn't get back on track as BSU put down two kills in between a service ace for set point, 24-18. Penn State held off one attempt before a Cardinal kill gave Ball State a 25-19 win to force a fifth set.
Penn State and Ball State kept it tight early in the fifth frame until the Cardinals used a 3-0 run to break open a 6-6 tie and move ahead by three, 9-6. PSU slow the momentum as a pair of errors pushed BSU up by five, 11-6, forcing the Nittany Lions to use their final timeout of the match. Hanging on, Penn State shaved the lead back to two, 14-12, with a pair of kills from Russell, but one final BSU kill handed the Cardinals a 15-12 win in the fifth set and 3-2 victory in the match.
The Nittany Lions are back in action Saturday, Jan. 17, traveling to No. 13 IPFW. First serve between Penn State and the Mastodons is set for 7 p.m. ET.