Month: February 2023

Purdue Fort Wayne Men’s Volleyball Defeats MIVA Opponent McKendree in Four Sets.

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne men’s volleyball team won tonight in four sets, 3-1, against McKendree. Set scores were 25-22, 25-22, 23-25 and 25-20.

After two losses in a row, PFW bounced back with a strong performance against another MIVA opponent.

The Mastodons did not really stand out in any area of the game tonight, as each set was very close. The only areas that PFW led the game in, were serving, hit percentage and blocks.

As a team PFW scored seven aces and only had 14 service errors. McKendree only scored two aces and had 17 service errors. Mark Frazier led all players in this stat with four aces. His teammates, Bryce Walker and Ryan Steponaitis added the rest as Walker had two aces and Steponatis had one. McKendree was led by Tyler Tripp and Kyle Wilson who each had one ace.

PFW had a .205% hitting percentage while McKendree hit .189%. PFW’s best percentage belonged to Steponaitis who hit .571%. McKendree’s Daniel Duggan had a game high .636%.

Just like the other stats mentioned, PFW only had a slight advantage in blocks. The Mastodons had 25 compared to McKendree’s 20. PFW had three players, Frazier, Steponaitis and Walker who each totaled six blocks. McKendree had two players with four blocks, Duggan and Rolen Lively.

While PFW did not lead in team kills, Jon Diedrich led all players in kills with 15. Bryce Wetjen led McKendree with 10 kills.

With the loss McKendree falls to 6-6 on the season and 1-4 in MIVA play. Their next match will be Saturday against #10 ranked Loyola Chicago.

With the win the Mastodons move to 11-4 on the season and 2-3 in MIVA play. The teams next match will be at 7 p.m. on Friday at home against MIVA opponent, Lewis.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Men’s Golf Team Finishes 9th in the Mickey Mouse Intercollegiate.

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne men’s golf team finished 9th out of 16 colleges at the Mickey Mouse Intercollegiate. PFW tied with St. Thomas for 9th place. This event ran from Sunday till this afternoon.

The Mastodons had two golfers in the top 20 of the 91-player field. Kasey Lilly and Hunter Mefford cracked the top 20 as they tied for 17th place.

Lilly shot 219 in total, 70 in round one, 74 in round two and 75 in round three.

Mefford also shot 219 having 74 in round one, 74 in round two and finishing round three on his birthday with 71.

Three other PFW golfers took part in the event. Nick Holder finished 35th in the event, Burke Pitz finished 43rd and Jadden Ousley finished 82nd.

As a team PFW finished with a score of 852.

The event was won by Wofford College who had a team score of 852. They were led by Matthew Larkin who finished 1st in the event as he shot 205.

The Mastodons next time out will be at the Daytona Beach Spring Invitational. This will be a two day event that will run from Mar. 6 to Mar. 7.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Men’s Basketball Team Makes Sports Center Top 10 as They Win Their Senior Day Game Against Wright State

By Gavin Greer

On Sunday Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball team won their senior day matchup against Wright State 77-75. The win came off of senior Damian Chong Qui’s buzzer beater three pointer. This shot ended up as No. 1 on the Sports Center Top 10 for Sunday night.

To go with this game winner, Chong Qui scored 16 points for the Mastodons.

PFW’s Head Coach, Jon Coffman, talked about Chong Qui after the game.

“Damian’s deserved this. His numbers haven’t played out the way I think he is as a shooter and a scorer, but I keep telling him numbers play out. That confidence he has is playing out,” said Coffman.

Before the game PFW honored their four seniors, Jarred Godfrey, Bobby Planutis, Chong Qui and Ra Kpedi. Each senior played an important role in the tight win.

Godfrey led all scorers with 25 points. He also added five rebounds and two assists. Wright State was led in points by Alex Huibregtse who scored 24.

Kpedi’s contribution to the game came in the form of a game high 15 rebounds. This tied his career high. Wright State was led by Brandon Noel in this stat. Noel had 11 boards.

Planutis added seven points on ¾ shooting. He also grabbed two rebounds.

PFW started the game off hot, at one point taking a 12-point lead. Eventually the Mastodons cooled off and Wright State took control. This shift came after Wright State shot 63% in the second half. The miraculous shot by Chong Qui saved the Mastodons from having their senior day spoiled.

Chong Qui talked about his performance following the game.

“It’s an amazing feeling, definitely being senior night and being our last home game. To win that game the way we won it our last time being on this floor, it means a lot,” said Chong Qui.

With the loss Wright State drops to 16-13 on the season and 9-9 in Horizon League play. They sit at a tie with Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy for 6th in Horizon League.

Wright States next game will be Thursday against Oakland.

With the win PFW move to 16-13 on the year and 8-10 in Horizon League play. They are currently 9th in the Horizon League.

PFW’s next game will be on the road Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against Milwaukee.

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Purdue Fort Wayne’s Baseball Team Kicked Off Their Season by Facing Alabama State in a Four Game Weekend Series.

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne’s baseball team had their season opening series this weekend in Alabama against Alabama State. The two teams played four times from Friday to Sunday. Friday had one game, Saturday had two games and finally Sunday had one last game.

In Friday’s series opening game PFW lost their first game of the season 0-13. The Mastodons could not get anything going at the plate as they totaled only three hits as a team.

PFW’s pitching started off poor as JD Deany allowed 8 earned runs in 1.2 innings. Bryce Marten had the best pitching performance out of the four PFW pitchers who threw in this game. Martens pitched 3.0 innings and only allowed one earned run.

The first game of Saturday went way better for the Mastodons as they earned their only win of the weekend in a 4-3 victory over Alabama State. PFW again only had three hits as a team in this game, but these hits led to runs.

PFW pitcher Jacob Myer started the game strong as he struck out seven batters in 4.2 innings. Justin Miller earned a save by not allowing a run in the final inning.

The second game of Saturday did not go well for PFW as they lost 4-18. Rex Stills started the game off badly by allowing six runs in 3.1 innings. Enas Hayden helped Alabama State grow their lead by allowing five runs in a single inning.

Jarrett Bickel was PFWs best performer as he reached base three times, once from a hit and twice off walks. Through this he was able to score two runs.

On Sunday the final game of the series was played. This was a closer contest as PFW fell short losing 11-13. Grant Thoroman was the Mastodons top performer in this game as he batted 3/5 and totaled five RBIs.

PFW will next time out will come on Friday at 7 p.m., this will be the first game of a four-game series against Bethune-Cookman.

 PFW will look to play better next week and improve their 1-3 record.

PFW will need to perform better at pitching going forward in the season. In their three losses against Alabama State, they allowed at least 13 runs in each game. It is hard to win when you cannot rely on your pitchers to keep a lead for you.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Women’s Softball Team Gets Three Wins During the Bob Heck Classic

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne women’s baseball team took part in the Bob Heck Classic in Georgia this weekend. From Friday to Sunday PFW played five games. On Friday they played Rhode Island and Georgia State, Saturday they played Eastern Kentucky and Rhode Island and finally on Sunday they played Georgia State again.

In the first game of the Classic, PFW picked up their first win of the season. This win came on Friday in a 6-1 victory over Rhode Island. Grace Hollopeter was the star of this game. She went 2/3 batting, hitting two homeruns and getting four RBIs. Pitcher Alanah Jones threw seven strikeouts and added a home run for PFW.

The second game PFW played Friday ended in a 5-6 loss to Georgia State. Hollopeter and Jones stayed hot as they both hit a home run.

On Saturday PFW picked up two more wins. The first came against Eastern Kentucky. The Mastodons won this game 2-1. Jones continued her success in the Classic as she pitched again, and this time tallied five strike outs. She also added to her homerun total as she went yard again.

Then later in the day PFW beat Rhode Island again, this time 12-3. Taryn Jenkins was the star of this game as she batted 2/3, hit two home runs and gathered five RBIs. Hollopeter also added a home run.

On the final day of the Classic, PFW had a rematch with Georgia State. This time PFW lost 6-7. Jenkins was the star again as she batted 2/3 and had two RBIs. While PFW batted well in this matchup, the defense allowed too many runs.

The Mastodons performance in this Classic should hopefully boost the team’s morale as they saw a lot of improvement at the plate. Going into the classic the team had only 16 hits and one run through six games. The team has hopefully found their stride and will continue playing well.

PFW will kick off their play in the Evansville’s 2023 Aces Home Tournament #2 on Friday. They will play their first game of the tournament at 10 a.m. versus Bowling Green. Later in the day at 12:30 p.m., they will play the host Evansville.

PFW is now 3-8 on the season. The team will look to improve this record as they will have five games in this tournament next weekend.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Men’s Volleyball Team Loses in Five Sets Against Ball State.

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne’s mens team fell in five sets, 2-3 against #11 ranked Ball Sate last night. Set scores were 20-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-10 and 8-15.

This matchup was a rematch of last year’s MIVA Championship which saw BSU winning their first MIVA Championship since 2002.

PFW put up another great performance against a ranked opponent this week. Their first ranked opponent this week was Ohio State who the Mastodons played on Thursday.

PFW dominated in kills against BSU. PFW had 61 compared to BSU’s 48. PFW’s Jon Diedrich led all players in kills with 28. This performance tied his career best mark for kills. Bryce Walker and Carlos Mercado added to the teams kills total with Walker having 13 and Mercado scoring nine kills .

Another area that PFW had the edge over BSU in, was assists. The Mastodons had 58 while BSU had 45.

PFW’s Zach Solomon led all players in this stat with 47 assists. The next closest to this total was BSU’s Jakub Wiercinski who had 39.

The only statistic that BSU had the upper hand in was blocks. They had 26 compared to PFW’s five. Wiercinski led all players in this area with 11.

With this win Ball State improved to 7-5 on the season. This win got them back to .500 in MIVA play with a 2-2 conference record. Their next match will be at Lindenwood on Feb. 24.

With the loss PFW suffered their first back-to-back loss of the season and fell to a record of 10-4. They are now 1-3 in MIVA play.

They will look to get back into winning form on Wednesday as they face off against McKendree at 8 p.m. on the road.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Women’s Basketball Team Wins at Home Against Northern Kentucky

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne women’s basketball team defeated Northern Kentucky today at home 65-59. This win gives PFW a two-game win streak.

The Mastodons performed well today against Northern Kentucky. The team shot 43.6% from the field, 33.3% from deep and 76.9% from the free throw line. PFW held Northern Kentucky to a poor shooting performance where they shot 39.2% from the field, 21.4% from three and 69.6% from the line.

Northern Kentucky only played eight members of their team in this game with two of the players playing five minutes or under. The remaining eight women had to play 23 minutes or more.

PFW had a more even distribution of minutes between the members of their team. The Mastodons had 11 players see action today, with only two women seeing more than 30 minutes of play.

PFW’s players having a chance to rest throughout the game allowed for the team to be fresher in the closing minutes. Northern Kentucky’s players would have been more fatigued which could explain their poor shooting.

Northern Kentucky out rebounded PFW 39 to 20 but this stat did not affect the outcome for PFW.

Northern Kentucky’s Lindsey Duvall led all scorers with 21 points. She is averaging 17.4 PPG. PFW was led by sophomore Audra Emmerson who had 19 points. This was a big game for her, as she is averaging just 5.4 PPG.

With this loss Northern Kentucky fell to 15-12 on the season. Their next game is at home against Detroit Mercy on Thursday. They sit at 5th in the Horizon League.

With PFW’s win they move to 12-16 on the year. They sit just behind Northern Kentucky at 6th in the Horizon League. Their next game will be Thursday at 6 p.m. at Milwaukee.

The Mastodons have two games left on their schedule before they begin their Horizon League tournament play.

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Purdue Fort Wayne Men’s Basketball Loses at Home Against Northern Kentucky

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne men’s basketball were defeated 50-63 last night at home against Northern Kentucky. This loss extended PFW’s losing streak to four games.

PFW’s latest loss saw the team struggling again to connect their shots. PFW shot 35.3% from the field, 21.7% from the three-point range and 69.2% from the free throw line. In comparison, Northern Kentucky shot 46.0% from the field, 47.8% from three and 75.0% from the line.

Both teams shot 23 threes, but PFW scored six less of this type of shot. This was a big reason why Northern Kentucky was able to hold a lead for 88.5% of the game.

Northern Kentucky controlled the boards in this matchup gathering 36 compared to PFW’s 27.

Northern Kentucky’s Marques Warrick led all scorers with 22 points. Warrick is averaging 18.8 PPG. PFW was led in scoring by Jarred Godfrey who had 14 points. Godfrey is averaging 17.4 PPG.

Godfrey not only led the team in scoring, but he also led the Mastodons in rebounds with five and in steals with two.

With this win, Northern Kentucky improved to a 12-5 record which has them in a three-way tie for 2nd place in the Horizon League.

Northern Kentucky’s next game is tomorrow at 3 p.m. where the team will be on the road against Cleveland State. This is an important matchup up as both teams are part of the three-way tie for 2nd in the Horizon League.

With their loss PFW’s record fell to 15-13. They sit at 9th in the Horizon League

PFW’s next game is at home, tomorrow at 2 p.m., they will face off against Wright State.

This game will be PFW’s final home game of the season. PFW’s four seniors, Jarred Godfrey, Bobby Planutis, Ra Kpedi and Damian Chong Qui will be honored during the game.

The Mastodons have three games remaining on their schedule before they begin their Horizon League tournament play.

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Purdue Fort Wayne’s Men’s Volleyball Team Suffers Loss Against Ranked Ohio State

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne lost tonight in four sets against #10 ranked Ohio State. Set scores were 25-23, 16-25, 32-34 and 19-25.

The Mastodons fought hard tonight against a difficult opponent but were unable to get over the hump. Late in the third set, PFW looked like they could pull away to take a 2-1 set lead, but they eventually lost the lead in the set and Ohio State closed out the set before going on to win the match.

Jon Diedrich led all players in kills with 20 for the Mastodons. Teammates Mark Frazier and Bryce Walker were not far behind with Frazier getting 14 and Walker totaling 11.

Ohio State’s kill leader was Jacob Pasteur who totaled 19 kills.

Two areas that PFW struggled in tonight, that ultimately led to their loss, were serves and attacking.

PFW had 4 aces but totaled 20 service errors. Ohio State doubled PFW’s ace total by scoring eight aces and only errored on 12 serves.

While not as big of an area of concern, PFW did have struggles in attacking. PFW had 24 attacking errors while Ohio State had only 19. Ohio State also had a better hitting percentage where they hit .289% compared to PFW’s .264%.

Although PFW is struggling in MIVA play, they have had a successful season so far. In total the team is 10-3 with two of their three losses coming against MIVA rivals. PFW can improve to .500 in MIVA play in their next game if they can beat Ohio State.

With tonight’s win Ohio State extended their win streak to four games and improved to a 10-3 record. Their next game will be on the road Saturday against Loyola Chicago.

The Mastodons next game will be Saturday at 7 PM at home against #11 ranked Ball State.

PFW Mens Volleyball 2023 Stats

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Purdue Fort Wayne’s Softball Team Loses Big Against Miami Ohio

By Gavin Greer

Purdue Fort Wayne’s softball team loses 0-12 against Miami Ohio, in a game that was called after the top of the 5th inning.

The Mastodons had lost five straight coming into today’s matchup, but this loss was the teams biggest. They allowed their largest run total of the season, and the team did not have a single hit. The only time PFW made it on base was through two walks and one error.

PFW pitcher, Gracie Brinkerhoff, allowed eight runs in three innings pitched. Her ERA for the day was 13.33. Alanah Jones relieved Brinkerhoff, and allowed four runs to be scored in one inning. Three runs were from her pitching and one runner was left from Brinkerhoff. Her ERA was 15.00.

Miami was great from the plate hitting four home runs as a team and totaling 12 hits. Allie Cummins had a game to be remembered as she hit 3/3 with all her hits being home runs. The team did all of this while only batting in four innings.

PFW needs to improve at the plate if they want to see any success this season. Through six games, the team’s batting average is .121, they have only gotten on base from hits 16 times, and they have only scored one run. Through these six games their opponents are batting .327, have 49 hits, and have scored 39 times.

PFW’s pitching has been bad too, as a team PFW’s ERA is 6.54. The team has only thrown 11 strike outs so far this season.

With the win Miami moves to 3-2 on the season. Their next game is Friday Feb. 24th where they will have a double header. The first against Bellarmine and the second against Murray State.

PFW drops to 0-6 on the season. Their next time out is also a double header. This double header will be on Friday. They will first play Rhode Island at 12:30 and then Georgia State at 5:30.

PFW Softball Stats

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