Box Score

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Jan. 22, 2012) – The Saint Francis University men's volleyball team dropped its fourth consecutive match Sunday afternoon, this time to No. 10 Ohio State at St. John Arena.

“Even though we lost to Ohio State, we take a lot of positives from today,” head coach Mike Rumbaugh said. “Our blocking was much better this afternoon. In sets one and two I thought we ran a very nice offense and our serve receive was much improved as well. We just have to find out how to read the game a little better, know when to put ball in play and let our defense handle it and know when to go for it and try and score off the end line.”

The Red Flash (1-4) hung in the entire four set match with the Buckeyes (5-3) but could not muster up enough offense needed to push them past OSU. Ohio State took the opening set 25-20 as they began to rack up points and pull ahead of SFU in the middle of the set.

In the second set it was time for the Flash to get even in the match, taking the set 25-22 but not without difficulty. Both teams pulled even with each other near the end of the second stanza with the score set at 22 all. Thanks to two clutch kills and an attack error on the part of the Buckeyes, the Flash were able to earn the final three points needed to take the set and even the match at one set apiece.

SFU held an early lead in the third set shortly after it began but struggled to hold it through the middle part of the set. OSU jumped ahead 10-9 and never trailed again as they captured set number three 25-18. The Flash battled hard to keep the match going in the fourth set but fell in extra frames 29-27. It looked promising as Saint Francis strung eight points together to put themselves up by ten points halfway through. Ohio State went on a run of its own however and closed the gap and eventually tied the score at 23. Both teams exchanged a few points back and forth before a couple of SFU errors led to the Buckeyes set and match win.

Senior and last week's EIVA Player of the Week Alex Kane (York, Pa./West York) collected a match-high 18 kills on 39 swings, good for a .359 attack percentage. Additionally, Kane registered two service aces and seven blocking assists in the loss. Adam Roche (Cochranton, Pa./Cochranton) had a very impressive match as he was the only other Flash player with double-digit kill numbers. Roche tallied 10 kills on 15 attempts, an attack percentage of .533. He also added a match-high 12 total blocks, helping the Flash put up 16.5 total team blocks on the afternoon. Senior setter Ryan Williams (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) dished out 40 assists in the three-game road trip weekend finale.

“Alex had a great game and he continues to put up big numbers for us,” Rumbaugh said. “Today Adam's blocking was spectacular and we really needed that from him. I'm looking forward to coming back home for a week of practice and then head onto Illinois for Lewis and Loyola.”

Saint Francis remains on the road for two matches this weekend beginning Friday with a trip to Romeoville, Ill. to take on No. 9 Lewis at 7 p.m.