Outside Kyle Teune stepped up with No. 10 Ohio State down its top player.
Teune finished with 11 kills and one error on a season-high .714 attack percentage as Ohio State swept No. 12/10 Ball State 25-18, 25-16, 25-18 on Thursday in Muncie, Indiana.
The Buckeyes (16-7, 9-4 MIVA) for the second consecutive match were without All-American outside attacker Jacob Pasteur, who suffered an injury in the team’s home loss to Ball State last week. In addition, the rivalry win moves Ohio State within one match of the first-place Ball State (16-7, 9-1 MIVA).
Teune led all players with six kills in Ohio State’s opening-game win and for the match was one kill shy of tying a career-high. The outside attacker also did not commit an attack error until the beginning of the third game.
Ohio State utilizing setters Noah Platfoot and Michael Wright throughout the match out-hit Ball State .418 to .146, including having a match-best .619 attack percentage in the second game.
Along with Teune, opposite Shane Wetzel finished with a match-high 13 kills on a .455 attack percentage. Wetzel’s final kill came with the third game tied at 15-15 and jump started a 10-3 run to close out the match.
Middle attacker Cole Young also had six kills and zero errors on a .667 attack percentage.
Young added a match-high six blocks as Ohio State had 11 blocks –six more blocks than Ball State.
Ball State outside attacker Tinaishe Ndavazocheva in the loss had a team-high 10 kills and hit .316. Ndavazocheva, though, was the only Cardinal to finish with more than five kills.
This loss ends Ball State’s eight-match winning streak and is its first home conference loss of the season. Ball State still is in first place in the MIVA but its lead drops to one-match ahead second-place No. 11 Loyola.