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Purdue Fort Wayne
Penn State
No. 7 Penn State Sweeps IPFW
3/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
March 20, 2009
University Park, PA - No. 7 Penn State University (16-3) used a highly offensive night to overcome IPFW (9-8) in straight sets 3-0 (30-17, 30-21, 30-17).
Friday's match was the third in a row against a top-ten ranked opponent as IPFW battled then No. 7 Long Beach State and No. 9 BYU last weekend.
Darryl Shank led IPFW in kills Friday with nine, (9-9-25) as Ben Duckworth added seven, (7-2-22). Nathaniel Berg chipped in five while Oliver Kook had four, Phil Peterson knocked in two and setter Corey Stewart snuck in one.
Penn State jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set with four kills and a service ace, while Shank got the Mastodons on the board at 5-1. Penn State's offense was just too good early on as the Nittany Lions didn't forfeit the serve due to an error until PSU's Max Lipsitz's serve found the web at 10-4. Penn State expanded the lead to 11 at 17-6. Penn State hit .448 in the opening frame to IPFW's .100 on its way to a 30-17 opening set victory.
Set two began a little more competitively as Shank and Kook both connected on kills early to keep the score within one at 4-3. IPFW got its only service ace of the match in the second set from Peterson who cut the lead to one at 9-8, however a 9-4 PSU run gave the Lions a 18-12 lead and enticed IPFW coach Arnie Ball to call timeout. Berg and Peterson connected on kills two out of the next three rallies but the Lions led by five at 19-14. IPFW trailed by only four at 21-17 after two straight Penn State errors but the Lions expanded the lead to 24-18. After being within four again at 25-21, the Lions' Max Holt banged a kill and a service ace to push the lead nearly out of reach at 27-21. IPFW then called a timeout, but wouldn't score again in the set falling 30-21.
Set three began with two ties, but IPFW struggled to shake the errors and fell behind 8-2 after three straight attack errors. Duckworth connected on a kill from Stewart to trail by only six at 14-8, and two consecutive Lion errors gave the `Dons a glimpse of light at 14-10, but the offense again came through for Penn State as the Lions connected on 19 kills in set three for a .567 rate of efficiency. Penn State went on a 12-4 run midway through the third frame to open up a 12 point advantage at 26-14. Duckworth logged the `Dons last kill before PSU's Ryan Sweitzer ended the match with a game three score of 30-17.
On the night Penn State hit .453 to IPFW's .083, including the Lions' Joe Sunder and Max Holt who hit .714 and .833 respectively and combined for 20 kills, (20-0-26 combined). Holt also had a match-high six service aces as PSU's Lipsitz had a match-high four blocks.
IPFW's Stewart handed out 25 assists to Penn State's Edgardo Goas who logged 40. Holt had a match-high 18 points on the night.
The `Dons next travel to Loretto, PA to take on the Saint Francis Red Flash tomorrow, Saturday, March 21. Match time is set to begin at 7:00 PM.
~Dons~
