COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 15, 2007 - The 12th-ranked Ohio State (2-0) men’s volleyball team, with a 3-0 (30-17, 30-18, 30-17) decision, defeated Springfield College this evening in St. John Arena in the first of a two-match series. The Buckeyes and the Pride will meet again on Tuesday (Jan. 16) at 2:00 p.m. in St. John Arena to complete the series.

Ohio State’s Robbie Klein scored a match-high 14 points for the Buckeyes. He had 10 kills (.500), three ace serves and a solo block in the match. SC freshman outside hitter Andrew Nally (Rochester, N.Y.) had a team-high six points for the Pride with six kills.

Tied at three in game one, a Buckeye error and a kill from junior setter Chris Shekell (Rochester, N.Y.) put the Pride ahead, 5-3. A John Albertson kill and two OSU errors moved the score to 7-4. A Pride error and a Daniel Mathews ace serve cut the Springfield lead to 7-6. Two OSU errors and a Dan Meske kill made it 9-7. An SC error and an Albertson kill tied the game at nine. A Buckeye error returned the lead to SC at 10-9. An Albertson kill tied the game at 10, and with a Meske ace serve and a solo block by Albertson, Ohio State took a 12-10 lead. Springfield closed to one at 15-14 with a Dave Smietana (Buffalo, N.Y.) kill, but the Buckeyes used an 8-1 run to open a 23-15 lead. The Pride cut the lead to seven, at 24-17, but Ohio State closed out the game with a 6-0 run to win, 30-17, on a Klein solo block.

Buckeye kills by Mathews and Klein gave OSU a 2-0 lead in game two. At 8-5, kills from Mathews and Klein and an Albertson-Mathews block made it 11-5. At 12-6, a kill and ace serve by Eric Palumbo (Chili, N.Y.) and two OSU errors cut the Buckeye lead to two at 12-10. At 13-11, a nine-point Buckeye run opened a 22-11 lead. Ohio State won the game, 30-18, off a Pride error to give the Buckeyes a 2-0 lead in the match.

Game three opened with an ace serve by Mathews and kills from Klein and Layne Dreven for a 3-0 Buckeye lead. An OSU error made it 3-1. A Klein kill and an OSU error made it 4-2. Kills from Dreven and Albertson took the lead to 6-2. At 17-11 OSU, a Meske kill, blocks by Albertson-Mathews and Sam Stevens-Albertson, and an Albertson kill took the lead to 10 at 21-11. At 23-14, kills from Stevens, Matthew Hankey and Dreven, and a Brett Versen-Dreven block opened the Buckeye lead to 27-14. The Buckeyes won the game, 30-18, off a Pride error to win the match, 3-0.

For the match, the Buckeyes had a 41-22 advantage in kills and a nine to one edge in ace serves. OSU gave up 19 service errors to 14 for the Pride. Defensively, Ohio State had a 30-23 margin in digs with OSU’s Stevens recording a match-high eight. SC’s Palumbo had a team-high six. At the net, the Buckeyes recorded 12 team blocks to none for the Pride. OSU’s Albertson collected a match-high seven blocks with a solo and six assists, while Mathews had five blocks (1-4). Mathews posted 30 assists in the match while Shekell had 10 and freshman Eric Shoemaker (Mount Wolf, Pa.) had six for the Pride.

The squads complete the two-match series at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow (Jan. 16) in St. John Arena.

published: 01/16/2007