Men's Volleyball Rallies for Five-Set Win

Friday, March 21

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

17-4, 6-3MIVA

Grand Canyon

12-13, 2-8MIVA

Grand Canyon

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

3/21/2014 10:31:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE | BOX SCORE (.pdf) | BOX SCORE (.html)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The 13th ranked (American Volleyball Coaches Association) IPFW men's volleyball team dropped the opening two sets of its Friday evening weekend finale against Grand Canyon; however, rebounded in a big way by taking the final three sets, knocking off Grand Canyon in five sets (20-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-9).

The win is the 14th in the team's last 16 matches, and ties the school record for best record through 21 matches in a season, tying with the 1998 and 1999 squads.

The win also improves the team to 6-3 in MIVA play headed into a big weekend with a road match at Lewis before hosting top ranked Loyola on March 29.

Andrew Sellan led the Mastodons with 18 kills, hitting .484 in the match, while Ramon Burgos added 13 kills while hitting at a .524 clip. Omar Rivera dished out 45 assists, with he and Eddie Rivera each serving up a pair of aces.

Defensively the team was led by Burgos who had five blocks, with Eddie Rivera and Albert Klimek each adding three blocks. JW Kieckhefer picked up a match-high nine digs, while Luis Bertran and Klimek each added seven.

Grand Canyon hit .500 in the opening set, and gradually decreased its attack percentage in every subsequent set, closing the match with a .188 attack percentage in the fifth set.

IPFW jumped ahead early in the first set, and led by two at 9-7 before the visitors from Arizona ran off a 6-2 run to lead 13-11, and never trailed again, holding on for the 25-20 opening set win.

The second set saw just three tie scores and no lead changes, as the Antelopes never trailed. Leading 14-9, IPFW ran off three straight points to climb to within one at 14-13. Trailing by one at 15-14, Grand Canyon got a kill and back-to-back aces - all from Ben Ponnet - as the visitors put in a gap before pulling away for the 25-21 second-set win.

After a between-set ceremony featuring many alumni from the different eras of IPFW volleyball, the Mastodons came out fired up, using three straight Burgos kills to turn a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 advantage, and the Mastodons never trailed in the frame. After Grand Canyon climbed to within one at 12-11, IPFW got three straight points, and then forced a sideout on each of the last six serves from the Antelopes to claim the 25-17 win.

Grand Canyon jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set, pacing its way to a 11-8 lead before the Mastodons ran off a 6-1 streak to turn the three-point deficit into a two-point advantage. The Antelopes responded by taking a 16-15 lead; however, five straight Mastodon points gave the hosts a lead they would not give up for the remainder of the set, forcing a deciding fifth set.

The Antelopes scored first to open the fifth set, before IPFW ran off three straight points on kills by Eddie Rivera and Sellan, along with a combo block from Sellan and Burgos to take a 3-1 lead early in the set. the visitors climbed to within one at 8-7 before the Mastodons rallied after a timeout to run off four straight points, and cruised to the 15-9 fifth-set comeback victory.

~ Feel the Rumble ~