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Purdue Fort Wayne
Grand Canyon
'Dons Back to .500 After Sweep
2/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 13, 2010
Fort Wayne, IN - For the second time in as many nights, the IPFW Mastodons picked up a three-set sweep of the Grand Canyon Antelopes, 30-27, 30-25, 30-26, returning to .500 overall at 5-5.
The 'Lopes took advantage of the sloppy pace early in the opening stanza, jumping out to an early 11-8 lead. The deficit sparked the IPFW offense as they rattled off a pair of three-point runs to right the ship, eventually building to an 18-15 lead.
Slowly chipping away, Grand Canyon evened the scored, eventually taking the lead at 26-25. A kill by junior outside hitter Darryl Shank, followed by another off the hand of Ivan Matos turned the tables, giving the 'Dons a 27-26 lead. Sophomore Garrett Bitter checked in to take the serve and a pair of attack errors by Grand Canyon closed the first set in favor of the home squad, 30-27.
The 'Dons carried the momentum over into the second set as they leapt out to a commanding 11-5 lead. As they did in the opening set, the scrappy 'Lopes chipped away, briefly stealing the lead at 21-20. Five consecutive points turned the lead back over to the 'Dons and, with the score knotted at 25, IPFW took five consecutive points to take the second frame and a two sets to none advantage heading to the break.
The third set played out almost identically to the second. After the 'Dons took an early seven point lead at 14-7, the 'Lopes made a match of it, cutting the lead down to one at 20-19 before taking the lead at 24-23. Once again, a pair of late rallies swung the match in favor of IPFW and Shank slammed home a kill off of the assist from senior Corey Stewart to take the third set and the match, 30-26.
Three 'Dons posted double digit kills in the match. Shank's 17 led the squad while Elon Fyfield (11) and Oliver Kook (10) rounded out the offensive leaders. Sophomore setter Dan Mader totaled 42 assists, libero Shaun Dryden logged 10 digs and Ivan Matos and Corey Frain tallied 5 block assists a piece for the 'Dons defense.
The win returns the 'Dons to .500 on the season at 5-5 overall, including a 2-3 mark in the MIVA. The match wraps up a seven-match home-stand in which the 'Dons posted a 3-4 record.
They will now hit the road for a weekend series at Saint Francis (Pa.) and Penn State (Feb. 19-20). Both matches will begin at 7:00 pm Eastern.
~Dons~
