The George Mason men's volleyball team traveled to Ball
State on Saturday night and the Patriots were unable to pick up the road win as
Mason fell to Ball State, 3-1. The Patriots were looking for a season sweep of
the non-conference opponent but couldn't come away with the win as the
Cardinals beat the Patriots, 25-20, 25-27, 25-11, 25-17.
Mason (11-6) beat Ball State (9-6) earlier this year when it
was ranked No. 11 in the nation. This time around, the teams split the first
two sets before Ball State dominated the final two to take the win and hand
Mason its third-straight loss.
Mark Jones
and
Eric Lucas
each had 11 kills and nine digs
while
Brandon Joyner
had 32 assists and 12 digs. The Patriots hit just .115 in
the match, though, while Ball State hit .255. The Cardinals got 11 kills and
just two errors from Anders Nelson while Greg Herceg had 13 kills and 13 digs.
The Patriots led early in the first set, 6-4, but the
Cardinals turned the tables and went ahead 13-11. With the set tied at 14-14,
Ball State took over. The Cardinals won three straight points and that
difference proved critical down the
stretch as Mason was unable to close the gap, falling 25-20.
The second set was also tight for most of the match but with
the score tied 17-17, Ball State picked up three straight points to get some
breathing room. Mason rebounded to make it 21-20, but Ball State won three of
the next four points to take a 24-21 lead. But over three straight set points,
the Patriots stepped up big. First Ball State made a service error, then the
Patriots got a block from
Eric Lucas
,
Mark Jones
and
Charlie Swingle
. Lucas
followed with a kill and
Brandon Joyner
had a service ace to suddenly give the
Patriots a set point. Ball State responded by tying the match but the Patriots
pulled out the set to even things at 1-1.
The third set was all Ball State. The Cardinals went ahead
7-1 and kept extending the lead, taking the game 25-11. The final set was tied
early at 6-6 before Ball State won 5 of 6 to go ahead 11-7. That was enough for
Ball State, which stayed in control throughout the set and picked up the
victory.
The Patriots will return to action on Wednesday night when
they host Mount Olive at 7 p.m.
