In the third set of the game, the Norse are down by one, 26-25, with the set and game on the line. Every set has been down to the wire. The Mastodons have the serve. “Wack” the ball goes flying over the net–NKU digs the ball up, one, two, hitting it back over the net.
Purdue Fort Wayne’s outside hitter Carlo Huisden pops the ball up, finding Hunter Hopkins, who sets it up for Owen Banner. Banner takes off. “Smack,” as he hits the ball with all his might. The volleyball goes directly over the net. With the ball going so fast, the Norse didn’t have time to react.
“Boom,” the ball hits the floor, and the Mastodons’ bench goes wild as they beat the Norse 27-25 in the final set, winning the game in three sets, 3-0 on Feb. 19.
This loss for the Norse moved them to 3-7 overall and 0-3 in MIVA play, while Purdue Fort Wayne moved to 8-3 overall and 3-1 in conference play.
Logan Muir came out to play for the Mastodons. He finished the night with 16 kills and two block assists. Banner, who had the game-winning kills, wasn’t far behind him, having 13 kills on a .526 hitting percentage.
The Norse were led by Griffin Wheatley, who had 11 kills on a .474 hitting percentage, recording three blocks and two digs. Adam Blair played big minutes and had 10 kills on a .529 hitting mark, while recording three blocks.
In the first set, the Norse jumped out to an early 11-7 lead, but that didn’t hold as Purdue Fort Wayne bounced back, going on a 6-1 run to take the lead. The rest of the set was a battle, as no team went on a run bigger than two.
The game was tied at 26, the Mastodons closed it out from a Banner kill and a bad set by Will McElveen gave them the first set win 28-26.
The second set played out the same way as the back half of the first set. No team got an edge until Purdue Fort Wayne went on a 3-0 run, the biggest run of the set. That made them even at 12 with the Norse.
The game remained a back-and-forth battle, playing off who got an error first, and that’s what it came down to. With PFW leading by one, 23-22, in a pivotal moment, the Norse had the serve, and Matt Cosgrove made a serve error, giving them the 24-22 lead. The Mastodons were able to close it out 25-23.
In the third and final set of the game, once again, the game was similar to the previous sets, a battle. The Norse were able to jump out early on a 3-0 run that got them up by one, 10-9. Purdue Fort Wayne responded right back with a 3-0 run of their own minutes later, getting the one-point lead.
With two 3-0 runs from both sides and back-and-forth action, the game was all tied up at 21. The game found itself tied two more times, with the final tie being 25 all. PFW had the last laugh, going on a 2-0 run to end the set 27-25, winning the game 3-0.
Every set came down to the wire, but the Norse were on the other end of winning those. Head Coach Jim Palilonis liked how they played against Purdue Fort Wayne, but he also knows it’s hard to win down the stretch as a young team.
“Being a young team, we just talked about learning how to win in critical moments. Winning is hard anywhere, but there really is something to learn how to win, and in crunch time,” Palilonis said. “I think we played a great match all the way around, all things considered. So I don’t really have any complaints with the effort, the energy and the attitude. It’s just getting in that spot, being able to finish.”
Palilonis sees the growth they’ve made over the last two weeks since their first time playing Purdue Fort Wayne.
“We were just at Purdue a couple of weeks ago, and completely different results. Even though they were both pre-game matches, we were not as close as we were tonight,” Palilonis said. “Spiraling forward, we know we can pull something from today. Work on it a little bit, hopefully bounce back.”