By Gavin Greer
Purdue Fort Wayne men’s volleyball team has started their season off hot with a 7-1 record. The Mastodons next game is today at 7:30 p.m. on the road against George Mason.
This is the second match of the DC challenge played in Fairfax, Virginia. The team has yet to start conference play but hope to do better than last season, where they finished 6th in the MIVA.
The Mastodons are currently on a six-game winning streak. These wins have come over Carthage, Missouri S&T, Harvard, Sacred Heart, Queens and Mount Olive.
Each win this season, for PFW, has been decided in three sets.
PFW’s only loss this season was to NJIT on Jan. 7. This loss was decided in three sets.
The Mastodons have outperformed their opponents in nearly every stat this season. While looking at the attack, they have had 287 kills compared to their opponents 265 while only having 108 errors compared to their opponents 136. In the set they have 269 assists compared to their opponents 253. For serves the team has 45 aces and 91 errors while opponents have been held to 29 aces while serving 114 errors.
Defensively the Mastodons have collected 183 digs to their opponents 177. Blocking has seen six solo blocks and 125 assisted blocks while their opponents have had six solo blocks and 87 assisted blocks.
The only stat that the team does not lead their opponents in is blocking errors. PFW has had ten errors in this category while their opponent has only had eight.
PFW is led by Ryan Perrotte. This is Perrotte’s 8th season in the position. Assistant coach Jim Palilonis returns for his second season.
This year’s schedule sees the Mastodons face off against multiple big schools. They will face Ohio State twice due to them being a MIVA rival. Other big matchups include UCLA and Penn State.