By Gavin Greer
Purdue Fort Wayne men’s volleyball team’s season came to an end on Saturday as they lost to Lewis University in the quarterfinals of the MIVA tournament.
PFW lost 1-3 to Lewis with set score being 15-25, 18-25, 25-16 and 36-38. The Mastodons fought to avoid elimination, but the extended fourth set proved too much for the team.
Lewis outperformed PFW in almost every statistic.
Lewis beat PFW in kills as they had 63 compared to PFW’s 55. Christian Prayer led Lewis in this stat with 17 kills. PFW’s Jon Diedrich had a game high 19 kills.
The stat of blocks was a closer contest between the teams as Lewis had seven and PFW had six. Antonio Elias Rodriguez of Lewis had a game high five blocks. PFW was led in this stat by Ryan Steponaitis who had four.
PFW had more errors and a lower hitting percent than Lewis as PFW had 21 errors and hit .270% compared to Lewis who had 15 errors and hit .403%.
The only stat that PFW had the edge in was aces as they had five while Lewis only had three. Mark Frazier had a game high four aces. Lewis had three different players who had one ace.
PFW finished this season 16-13 in total and 7-7 in conference play. After a hot start at the beginning of the year, PFW began to struggle as they faced multiple ranked opponents. The Mastodons ended the season on a three game losing streak.
Jon Diedrich had a great season for PFW as he was an All-MIVA First Team honoree.
After defeating PFW, Lewis will now face NO. 1 Ball State in the MIVA semifinals.