COLUMBUS, Ohio. - The Missouri S&T men's volleyball team began its first of two matches in the state of Ohio with a defeat at the hands of 14th-ranked Ohio State in straight sets Saturday evening.
The Miners (1-4) dropped the first set 25-17 before dropping the final two sets by identical 25-16 scores.
S&T began the match with three straight points that included two kills from
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd). However, the Buckeyes rallied back to tie the set at five, then scored five straight points which included three service aces from Shane Wetzel.
Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) was able to cut the deficit to three at 12-9 after his service ace, then the teams swapped three-point runs before Ohio State scored 10 of the final 15 points to complete the set one win.
The Buckeyes started the second set by scoring five straight points that was eventually snapped on a
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) kill. S&T would cut the deficit to five on four separate occasions, the last at 12-7. The Buckeyes would eventually pull away in the set as it would go up 22-11 before S&T scored three straight points prior to OSU completing the win in set two.
Ohio State began the final set on a 9-2 run that was eventually snapped on a
Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) kill. S&T rallied to get to within six at 11-5 before
Grogan Kraus (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell North) and Sallade assisted on a block and Sallade added a kill on the next rally to cut the deficit to three. However, the Buckeyes responded with five straight points that ended on an OSU service error to make the set 15-9.
Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley) was able to keep the deficit to six after his kill moments later that made it 16-10, but the Buckeyes stretched their lead to eight and was able to finish off the match.
The Miners were led in kills by Meyer with six, while Sallade and Duett added four each.
Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) tallied all 16 assists while
Andres Hernandez (Bedford, Texas/Trinity) contributed a team-high five digs and Kraus and Sallade added a team-high two assisted blocks each. As a team, S&T had 17 kills on 59 attacks while finishing with 12 digs.
The Buckeyes (4-2) were led in kills by Wetzel with 12 and Jacob Pasteur with 10 as the pair also led with a team-high five digs each. Noah Platfoot led Ohio State with 31 assists and a block.
The Miners will finish their three-game road trip by visiting Central State Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Eastern in Wilberforce, Ohio.
