Purdue Fort Wayne
Rutgers-Newark
Volleydons Dominate First Road Match
1/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 23, 2009
Newark, NJ -- The IPFW men's volleyball team (3-0, 0-0 MIVA) traveled to Newark, NJ Friday night and continued its winning ways defeating host Rutgers-Newark (0-1) in straight sets 3-0 (30-27, 30-23, 30-27).
Sophomore Darryl Shank paced the way for the Mastodons with 15 kills and seven digs. Ben Duckworth continued his offensive ways also with his third-straight double digit match in kills with 10. Oliver Kook totaled six kills while Nathaniel Berg and Jonathan Meyer chipped in two kills apiece. Setter Corey Stewart snuck in a kill also.
Stewart handed out 24 assists for the 'Dons and freshman Dan Mader helped out with seven. Shank led IPFW with a match, and career high seven digs, while libero Matt Pliske finished the evening with six.
Juniors Berg and Kook both tallied five blocks, each having a solo effort and four block assists.
The Scarlet Raiders of Rutgers-Newark finished the match with more points than IPFW at 52-51. The 'Dons however had fewer attack and service errors. IPFW finished the match hitting .183 to Rutgers-Newark's .122.
IPFW opened up a lead early on in the first set leading 4-0 before a Scarlet Raider time-out. The Rutgers' Nate Stott nailed a kill to put the home team on the board at 4-1. The 'Dons pressure continued as they led 10-3 after a kill from Kook. Rutgers-Newark got as close as three points at 28-25 with a kill from Derek Wolfe, but it was Shank that set up game point for IPFW which would then seal set one on a Rutgers-Newark service error.
Set two began much closer as the two teams were tied 3-3 before IPFW took its first lead with a kill from Shank at 4-3. IPFW hit a match-low four errors in game two as well as its highest single-game attack percentage at .357. IPFW never trailed in set two and led 26-21 before a kill from Duckworth and three attack errors from the Raiders gave the 'Dons game two 30-23.
IPFW took a very early lead in set three at 1-0, but fell down by as many as four at 8-4 and then again at 12-8. Coach Ball then called a time-out to pull his players together. The 'Dons responded well by rattling off 11 of the next 15 points to take the lead at 19-16 with a kill from Kook. Rutgers-Newark rallied to tie the third set at 20, and again at 21, but another Raider error gave the 'Dons the lead. IPFW didn't trail again, and back-to-back kills from Shank pushed the score to 23-21. IPFW won game three 30-27.
Wolfe led the Scarlet Raiders with 11 kills; Liran Shapiro handed out 36 assists for Rutgers-Newark.
IPFW next travels to Fairfax, VA to tomorrow evening (January 24) to take on 2008 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association runner-up No. 15 George Mason. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
~Dons~
