Mastodons Fly West for Three Matches

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The Fort Wayne men's volleyball team flies west for a trio of matches at No. 3 UC Irvine, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara and No. 14 Concordia Irvine.

Gameday Information vs. UC Irvine
WHEN: Wednesday, March 7 | 10 p.m. EST
WHERE: Irvine, Calif. | Crawford Court
LIVE STATS: sidearmstats.com/ucirvine/mvball/
LIVE VIDEO: http://bigwest.sidearmstreaming.com/watch/?Live=866
SERIES HISTORY: Fort Wayne leads 4-2
LAST MEETING: Fort Wayne 1, UC Irvine 3 (25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 25-11) | Jan. 3, 2017 | Irvine, Calif.

Gameday Information vs. UC Santa Barbara
WHEN: Friday, March 9 | 10 p.m. EST
WHERE: Santa Barbara, Calif. | Rob Gym
LIVE STATS: http://www.ucsbgauchos.com/sports/m-volley/2017-18/boxscores/20180309_v8nr.xml
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.bigwest.org/tv/
SERIES HISTORY: UC Santa Barbara leads 17-3
LAST MEETING: Fort Wayne 0, UC Santa Barbara 3 (25-22, 25-14, 25-12) | Jan. 7, 2017 | Santa Barbara, Calif.

Gameday Information vs. Concordia Irvine
WHEN: Saturday, March 10 | 10 p.m. EST
WHERE: Irvine, Calif. | CU Arena
LIVE STATS AND VIDEO: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/cui/
SERIES HISTORY: First Meeting
LAST MEETING: First Meeting

Scouting Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne flies out to California with a 13-4 record, while also being one of two teams outside the Top 15 Poll receiving votes. The Mastodons are sixth in the country in opponent hitting percentage, holding their opponents to a .211 clip. Fort Wayne is tied for fifth in the nation in total wins with 13 and win percentage. Pelegrin Vargas is leading the team with 3.71 kills per set.

Scouting UC Irvine
The Anteaters will welcome the Mastodons while holding an 11-4 record and being the No. 3 team in the country. UC Irvine has played two matches against MIVA teams so far this season: Lewis and Loyola. UCI took a three-set win over the Flyers and a 3-1 victory over the Ramblers. Middle blocker Scott Stadick leads the nation in blocks per set with 1.305. UCI has played the second-toughest schedule through this point in the season, and is coming off a 3-1 win at Hawaii.

Scouting UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara holds a 7-5 record, and is tied with Concordia Irvine for the 14th ranked team in the AVCA Top 15 Coaches Poll. The Gauchos are riding a three-match win streak behind Keenan Sanders' 4.23 kills per set, which ranks fourth in the nation.

Scouting Concordia Irvine
CUI holds an 8-8 record, and has lost its last two matches in straight sets, both at Hawaii. The Eagles will play host to Ball State and Loyola before facing the Mastodons on Saturday. Concordia Irvine holds a tie for the No. 14 spot in the Top 15 thanks to three straight wins over Grand Canyon, USC and CSUN. CUI is the national leader in attacks per set, and second in the country in blocks per set.

Double Trouble
Michael Keegan has five double-doubles on the season after a 42 assist/18 dig performance at Quincy. He pushed his career double-double total to 13, with 10 of them coming on the road.

Victory Won't Wait For the Nation That's Late
Fort Wayne has eight more wins than last season, just 17 matches through the year. This is the most improved in the nation from the 2017 season to 2018. Only seven programs in the country have matched or passed their win totals from 2017 through this point in the 2018 season. Pepperdine, North Greenville, Emmnauel, UC San Diego, Quincy and Lindenwood are the other programs that have done so. Quincy is the second-most improved, with two more wins in 2018 than in 2017.

Dig Your Heels In
Junior transfer Kolbie Knorr had a career-high 21 digs in his return to his former institution, Quincy on Feb. 24. This is the most digs in a match by any player in the MIVA this season. Knorr's 21 digs was only two short of the Fort Wayne single-match record of 23, which was set by Mike Morici in 2005 at Quincy and matched by Luis Bertran in 2015 at Limestone. Knorr had seven of his digs in the fifth set against the Hawks.

Career Night
Sophomore Pelegrin Vargas had a career-high 24 kills against Loyola on Feb. 16. Vargas' kill breakdown in the match by set was seven, three, seven, five and two. This is the most kills in a MIVA match this season by any individual. His previous career-high was 22 in a five-set win at Quincy in 2017.

Bringing Out the Brooms
Seven of Fort Wayne's victories this season have been sweeps. The Mastodons only dropped one set in January in a 3-1 win over Harvard in their 7-0 opening month.

Seeking 600
Fort Wayne is only two wins short of reaching 600 program victories. The 500th win came in 2011 by way of a 3-0 win over Carthage. The Mastodons are looking to become the first program started in 1980 or later to reach the 600 win threshold.

Last Time Out
Fort Wayne picked up a pair of nonconference wins by topping Alderson Broaddus 3-1 and Loras in straight sets. Both of the lineups that started the match were brand new starting combinations, giving rest to Michael Keegan, Richie Diedrich and Tomas Gago.

Next Time Up
The Mastodons will return home for a weekday matchup against Ball State in their return to MIVA play on Wednesday, March 14. The 'Dons will face the Cardinals again just three days later on Saturday in Muncie, Indiana.

~ Feel the Rumble ~

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Players Mentioned

Richie Diedrich

Tomas Gago

Michael Keegan

Kolbie Knorr

Pelegrin Vargas

Purdue University Fort Wayne Athletics