QUINCY, Ill. - The Hawks entered the contest looking to break out of a five match loosing streak on Friday evening (Feb. 23) playing host to the Cardinals of Ball State University for a battle of the birds in Pepsi Arena. BSU used big first and second sets to roll on to victory in three (15-25, 12-25, 20-25) over the Hawks.
Set One
BSU led off the match with a pair of kills to lead it before Quincy came back to equalize shortly after at 3-3 on a kill from
Keegan Carey and a kill and block for
Logan Gieseke.
Ball State sandwiched three-point runs around a
Raje Alleyne kill to press ahead 9-4 before trading the next seven points then using another three-point run to further the advantage to 15-8. Quincy couldn't get anything cooking down the stretch to make things interesting, giving the Cardinals the set 25-15.
Set Two
The Hawks fell behind in a big way from the onset of the frame and never sniffed a comeback bid for the remainder of the set as BSU went nuclear to open the set with a 13-3 advantage.
Quincy didn't fair much better after the slow start, knocking down the advantage to single digits on a few occasions before a four-point run from the Cardinals closed out the set for a 25-12 winner in the second set.
Set Three
After a couple of unsavory sets the Hawks finally looked to have a little life to them in the third frame of play, leading early 5-3 thanks to kills from
AJ Goedheer and
Zackary Zdrojeski along with a block for Alleyne and an ace for
Roman Deryckere. BSU responded with a five-point run to pull ahead 8-5.
The Hawks battled back to regain the advantage 13-12 on back-to-back kills from Alleyne and remained firmly in the picture for the remainder of the set although they would never lead again.
Knotted at 15-15 a four-point BSU run followed by kills from Gieseke and Goedheer along with an error made it 19-18. Three more from Ball State followed by a pair from the Hawks kept it close down the stretch at 22-20, but the Cardinals got the three points needed to end the contest with a 25-20 set and 3-0 match win.
Next Up
The Hawks travel down to Lebanon, IL for the next match on the docket against the Bearcats of McKendree University on Friday (Mar. 1). Quincy will try and avenge a 0-3 loss they suffered to the Bearcats on 2/8 with first service for the contest tabbed for a 5:00 PM start.
