Men's Volleyball loses CVC opener to UC Santa Cruz
| Published: 03/08/2013 |
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MILWAUKEE — MSOE fought back to win the second set after dropping the first, but ultimately ran out of steam and lost its 2013 Continental Volleyball Conference opener to UC Santa Cruz, 25-19, 20-25, 25-22 and 25-17, Thursday night at the Kern Center in the first match of the CVC West Division Challenge.
MSOE (3-9, 0-1 CVC) couldn't capitalize on the momentum it gained from a second set where it hit .393 while holding the Banana Slugs to .208 hitting. The Raiders allowed .397 hitting in the last two sets and commited as many errors as they had kills in the fourth and final set, totalling nine of each.
UC Santa Cruz (4-4, 1-0 CVC) was led by the powerful serve and attack of junior Jake Landel, who accumulated 14 kills on .375 hitting. The kill number was second only to senior teammate Salvatore La Cavera and MSOE's Brian Main (Sr./Lamar, Mo./ME), who each had 15.
The first set was fairly even until UCSC went on a 7-1 run to turn a 16-16 tie into a 23-17 advantage. Two of Landel's match-high three aces came during the stretch.
Landel's third ace came in the second set to give UCSC a 19-16 lead, but his subsequent service error would be the start of a 7-0 MSOE run that included two aces for Josh Avery (Jr./Bolingbrook, Ill./SE).
The momentum swung back-and-forth in the third set as the Banana Slugs staked claim to a 14-10 lead, only to see it erased as MSOE took six of the next seven points. The tide of the entire match turned, though, when UCSC broke a 17-17 tie with a Landel kill, then saw MSOE bookend a timeout with errors to make it 20-17. The Raiders would get no closer than two points again before losing the set. The Banana Slugs avoided many of the same errors, hitting .400 in the third.
The Raiders were unable to recover from their third-set missteps in the fourth. Already down 18-15, MSOE committed three errors in a five-point UCSC run that all but decided the match.
The match was the first of the seven-match weekend Challenge, which sees Carthage and Fontbonne join the action tomorrow. The Banana Slugs play their second match of the Challenge against Carthage to start the evening at 4 p.m. CDT, while MSOE tries to bounce back from tonight's loss against Fontbonne at 6 p.m. The Griffins will then stay on the court to face Carthage at 8 p.m. Tickets will be good for all three matches and are available at the Kern Center Box Office. Live stats will be available for the games through this link while the MSOE match will also be broadcast with streaming video and Dan Pfeifer on the call at this link.
