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.