FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The Missouri S&T men's volleyball team began its three-game road trip with a loss to Purdue Fort Wayne Friday evening in straight sets. The Miners dropped the first set 25-20, then lost the next two by scores of 25-15 and 25-17.
The Miners (1-3) opened this decision by scoring the first two points, but the match would go back-and-forth for much of the opening set as the score was tied on 12 occasions, the last at 18 apiece following a kill by
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd). With the set tied at 18, the Mastodons responded with a 5-0 run that was eventually snapped on a
Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley) kill. S&T got one point closer after Caleb Rowling and
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) combined on a block, but Purdue Fort Wayne closed the set by scoring the final two points.
The Mastodons and Miners were tied twice early in the second set, but Purdue Fort Wayne took a two-point advantage after back-to-back kills from Sergio Carrillo and Diedrich. The Miners were able to cut the deficit back to one at 10-9 after a triple block from Sallade, Duett, and Rohlwing, but the Mastodons responded by scoring eight of the next 10 points to take a seven-point lead and would go on to take the set 25-15.
Purdue Fort Wayne got off to a 3-1 start in the third set, but the Miners responded with a 3-0 run on a kill by
Zachary Carff (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and a service ace by Sallade to take a 4-3 advantage. Moments later, Carff added another kill to make it 5-4 before the Mastodons responded with a 6-0 run that was snapped when Purdue Fort Wayne committed an attack error. S&T responded with two quick points after a Meyer kill and a Rohlwing service ace to cut the deficit to two.
S&T trailed 12-10 before Purdue Fort Wayne bursted for a 6-0 run that was capped off on a Carrillo service ace to make it 18-11. S&T had the margin down to four at 21-17 before the Mastodons scored the final four points to complete the match.
Four S&T players -- Rohlwing, Meyer, Sallade and Duett -- finished this decision with five kills apiece, while Sallade also had two of the Miners' four service aces. Rohlwing finished with a .444 attack percentage as
Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) led S&T with 17 assists and
Andres Hernandez (Bedford, Texas/Trinity) added a team-high five digs.
As a team, S&T recorded 24 kills on 68 attacks while adding four service aces.
Purdue Fort Wayne:
The Mastodons were led in kills by Jon Diedrich with 10 and Bryce Walker contributed seven, while Mark Frazier had six kills and a team-high four service aces. Sergio Carrillo led Purdue Fort Wayne with 24 assists and contributed a team-high seven digs as the Mastodons recorded 31 kills to improve to 3-1 on the season.
S&T will travel to Ohio State to face the 14th-ranked Buckeyes on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. Eastern in the Corvelli Center.
