BOX SCORE BOX SCORE

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Jan. 15, 2011) - A green Saint Francis men's volleyball team opened up the 2011 season against one of the best teams in the country, struggling to a 3-0 (16-25, 18-25, 19-25) loss to the #8 Ohio State Buckeyes at St. John's Arena in Columbus.

The Flash fall to 0-1 overall on the season, while the Buckeyes improve to 1-2 in 2011.

According to Saint Francis head coach Mike Rumbaugh, the Flash showed youthful inexperience; Saint Francis lost six starters from the 2010 season to graduation.

"I think we showed a little stage fright early on," said Rumbaugh.  "We were able to put together some stretches of two and three points at a time where looked very good, but we weren't able to sustain that pressure."

The Red Flash fell behind early in the first set, as the Buckeyes opened the scoring with a 7-2 run.  The Buckeyes' lead would reach as many as 12 points, and Ohio State hit a dominating .600 in a coast-to-coast 25-16 win.

Saint Francis showed glimpses of promise in the second set when they overcame an early 4-1 deficit to take an 8-7 lead on a Chad Martson (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) kill.  However, the closest the Red Flash would get from that point was two points (thanks to a John Skarupa (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegehny) kill), and the Buckeyes took the set 25-18.  Again, Ohio State blistered the ball, hitting .545 in the win.

The best set of the day for the Red Flash was the third, forcing the Buckeyes to go full throttle to the finish.  Consecutive kills from freshmen Logan Patterson and Colin Sherwin tied the set at 9-9, and SFU even took a lead on a John Beck kill that made it 14-13.  Skarupa pushed the lead to 15-14, but the Buckeyes controlled the rest of the set and won 25-19.

The Red Flash offense was led by Patterson, who got the start at outside hitter in his first career match.  He produced a team-high nine kills and added two blocks.  Skarupa had eight kills and hit a team-leading .467.  Rumbaugh also cited the performance of freshman Colin Sherwin, who had six kills and hit at a .364 pace.  John Wappler (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) had seven digs, and Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) posted 32 assists.