Men’s volleyball wraps up road swing with 3-0 loss at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Juniata College men's volleyball struggled to keep pace with an Ohio State squad that hit for big numbers, dropping a 3-0 decision to the Buckeyes on Sunday afternoon at St. John Arena. 

Set scores for Ohio State were 25-12, 25-20, and 25-15. 

Juniata's Mike Kraft (York, Pa./Eastern York) led Juniata with a team-high seven points with four kills on seven swings, a solo block, and four block assists. Freshman opposite Alex McColgin (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) was Juniata's kills leader with six, while outside Chris Vrooman (Baden, Pa./Ambridge Area) and Ross Madden (Richmond, Va./Deep Run) 

OSU's Shawn Sangrey recorded a match-high 21.5 points with 19 kills (.500), one service ace and three block assists.

Tied at one in set two, a Sangrey kill and ace serve and an Overman-Tobkin block gave Ohio State a 4-1 lead. Juniata tied the set at four with a Buckeye error and kills from McColgin and Vrooman. Tied at seven, two Sangrey kills made it 9-7 Buckeyes. At 11-9, a McColgin kill and a Madden-John Prout (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) block tied the set at 11. A Prout-McColgin block gave Juniata a 12-11 lead. An Eagle error tied the set at 12. The squads exchanged points to reach 18-all. Two Sangrey kills, an Eagle error and a Tobkin solo block gave Ohio State a 22-18 lead. Kills from Madden and Sangrey made it 23-19. A Madden kill cut the margin to 23-20. The Buckeyes reach set point at 24-20 with a kill from Sangrey. Ohio State, with a Mik Berzins kill, won the set, 25-20, to take a 2-0 lead in the match. OSU hit .394 for the set to .286 for Juniata.

Ohio State broke a 1-1 tie with an 8-3 run to open a 9-4 lead. An Eagle error and a Sangrey-John Tholen-Tobkin block made it 3-1. A McColgin kill made it 3-2. An Eagle error and a Sangrey-Heine-Tobkin block made it 5-3. Eagle kills from Madden and Ben Wolff (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) and one from Kevin Heine made it 6-4. OSU took an 8-4 lead with a kill and ace serve from Tobkin. Kills from Matt Nizich (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown East) and Kraft made it 8-6. After an Eagle error, kills from Vrooman and Kraft and a Vrooman-Prout-Kraft block tied the set at nine. At 10-all, kills from Berzins, Tholen and Tobkin and two from Sangrey gave Ohio State a 15-10 lead. The run continued with kills from Heine and Sangrey and a Mike Stefani ace serve for an 18-10 lead. At 20-12, a Sangrey kill made it 21-12. A Wolff-Kraft block made it 21-13. A Heine kill and an Eagle error gave OSU a 23-13 lead. A Wolff kill and an OSU error cut the lead to 23-15. Ohio State reached match point at 24-15 off a Juniata error. The Buckeyes won the set, 25-15, with an Eagle error for a 3-0 OSU victory. Ohio State hit .417 for the set to .167 for Juniata. 

For the match, Ohio State hit .403 to .138 for Juniata. The Buckeyes had a 45-24 margin in kills and a 42-23 advantage in assists. OSU's Kehoe posted a match-high 39 assists to 17 for Juniata's Kraft. 

Ohio State recorded six ace serves while holding Juniata without an ace. OSU's Kehoe recorded a match-high three in the match. The Buckeyes gave up nine service errors to seven for Juniata. Defensively, OSU had a 21-8 margin in digs with Kehoe posting a match-high seven for the Buckeyes. At the net, Ohio State had an 8.5 to eight advantage in team blocks. Kraft for Juniata and Tobkin for Ohio State shared match-high honors with a solo and four assist blocks each. 

Juniata returns to action on Friday, Mar. 4, when it faces Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Start time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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