WILBERFORCE, Ohio – Despite extending the third set, Missouri S&T's men's volleyball team lost in its final contest of its weekend road trip as it fell in straight sets to Central State Sunday afternoon. The Miners dropped the first two sets 25-20 and 25-23 before falling in set three by a count of 27-25.
S&T (1-5) was even with the Marauders at two early in set one after kills from
Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd), but saw the Marauders move in front and extend its lead later in the set a 5-0 run that was snapped on a
Grogan Kraus (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell North) kill. The Kraus kill started a run of three straight S&T points to cut the deficit to four at 14-10 before CSU was able to extend its lead out to as much as six points in the latter stages of the set before closing it out.
The Marauders scored two of the first three points of the second set, but S&T responded with back-to-back points to take a 3-2 lead. With the score tied at six, S&T scored three points in succession that included a block by Sallade and held onto the advantage until the Marauders scored three straight points to retake the lead. The Miners responded with a 3-0 run of their own to take a 16-14 lead as
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) added two of his team-high 13 kills to take a two-point lead. The teams swapped points until the score was tied at 22, which is when CSU took advantage of an attack error and a got a block to go up by two.
Following a kill by Sallade that brought S&T to within a point, CSU's D'Aaron McCraney got a kill to finish the set in the Marauders' favor.
The Miners were able to get off to a quick 2-0 lead in the third set after a
Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley) block before Central State responded with a 4-0 run that was snapped on a kill by Duett to cut the deficit to one. Down 7-4 deficit, S&T responded with five of the next eight points – which included two kills by Meyer -- to cut the deficit back to one. Each team would exchange three-point runs that before the Marauders used with a 5-2 spurt to make the set 18-14, but the Miners responded with five straight points that included two more kills from Meyer to take a 19-18 advantage.
From that point, the teams swapped points and the lead before Meyer tied the set at 24 on a kill from an assist from
Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District). Both teams committed service errors to keep the match at 25, but Central State got a kill from McCraney to regain the lead and then won the match after an attack error by the Miners.
The Miners were led in kills by Meyer with 13 and Sallade added 11, while Duett contributed six as the trio tallied 30 of S&T's 38 total kills. Kuruzovich led S&T with 17 assists and
Jordan Orr (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) added 11, while
Andres Hernandez (Bedford, Texas/Trinity) led the Miners with a team-high seven digs.
Meyer had both service aces for S&T and Duett, Kraus and Sallade each had two blocks each.
The Marauders (3-2) were led in kills by Ljubisa Novakovic with 14, while Cameron Lee and McCraney added nine each.
The Miners will return to Gibson Arena to host Missouri Baptist Thursday at 6 p.m.
