LORETTO, Pa. (Feb. 20, 2010) - The Red Flash men's volleyball team came out of the gate strong but could not sustain their momentum, dropping three straight sets to fall to the Ball State Cardinals 1-3 (31-29, 27-30, 28-30, 21-30) at DeGol Arena on Saturday.
The loss was the second straight for the Red Flash and the fifth in their last six matches, dropping them to 7-6 overall. The Cardinals are now 9-3 overall.
Jordan Varee (Conneautville, PA/Conneaut Valley) (Conneautville, Pa./Conneaut Valley) had his second straight 25+ kill performance, notching 25 kills and 14 digs for his fourth double-double of the season. He recorded the feat on 56 swings with just seven errors for an excellent .321 hitting percentage; Varee recorded 57 kills over the past two matches, an average of 6.33 kills per set, and hit .402.
Things appeared rosy for the Red Flash in the first set, as the large crowd energized SFU into a thrilling 31-29 victory to open the match. The Cardinals opened with the 3-2 lead, but the Flash countered with a Varee kill and a Patrick McManamon (Huntingdon, PA/Huntingdon) (Huntingdon, Pa./Huntingdon) / Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) block to go up 4-3. SFU was able to build their lead to as high as three, but a 4-0 run on the part of the Cardinals put Ball State ahead 18-17. Ethan Pheister contributed two of his match-high five aces in the sequence.
The teams would battle back and forth the rest of the way, with every error and every kill a window of opportunity that neither could close with a dominant play. Finally, however, SFU was able to gain an edge thanks to a Lee Meyer service error that made it 29-29; McManamon teamed with Williams and later Nick Rivett (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) on consecutive blocks for the win.
Varee opened the scoring for the Flash in the second set with one of his match-high 25 kills, and then teamed with Pete Freyer (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) on a block to make it 2-0. However, the Cardinals recovered quickly to establish a 7-2 that was sparked by a pair of aces from Meyer. Meyer would later add the kill that would give Ball State its largest lead of the set, 14-10.
While that cushion survived a long time, it was not permanent as a late run from SFU (thanks to Varee and Rivett kills) tied the score at 27-27. However, J.D. Gasparovic notched a kill and a block to make it 29-27, and Jamion Hartley's kill closed the set 30-27 for Ball State.
Like the previous set, the Flash opened up with a 3-1 scoring run punctuated by a Rivett ace. This time, though, the Flash were able to maintain a minor lead throughout the early part of the set; in response to kills from Hartley and Meyer that briefly put the Cardinals up 7-6, SFU went on a 11-4 run that began with a Hartley service error and ended with a Rivett ace that made it 17-11.
However, the six-point lead would not stand up as the Cardinals battled back to eventually tie the score at 27. Like the previous sets, it was a tiny crack (in this case, a pair of blocks from Ethan Pheister, one of them also including Gasparovic) that put Ball State up 29-28, with Gasparovic putting the final ball away for the 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was, bluntly put, a near-disaster for the Red Flash; the Cardinals opened with a 7-3 run to start and pushed the lead to 20-9. However, the Red Flash saved face down the stretch by refusing to let the Cardinals run them out of the gym. Oddly enough, the fourth set was perhaps the most inspired for Varee; he recorded eight of his kills in the set, and audibly called for the ball as he pounded away against the Cardinals with some of his fiercest attacks of the night. However, it was not enough as Ball State took the set 30-21.
Joining Varee in double-digit kills was Rivett, who finished with 16. Rivett has now recorded double-digit kills in 11-straight matches, a season-high for any Red Flash player in 2010. Varee also tied a match-high with 14 digs, with John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) (Warrendale, Pa./North Allegheny) just behind at nine digs. McManamon had a match-high seven blocks, and Varee and Rivett each tied with two aces apiece. Williams led the team with 52 assists.
