Men's Volleyball Falls To #8 Ohio State, 3-1, In Morgan Classic Finale
Penn State vs. Stanford Boxscore
Ohio State vs. SC Boxscore
Day One Results
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – February 11, 2006 – Dan O’Dell of Penn State was named Most Outstanding Player in leading his Nittany Lion teammates to a 3-0 victory over Stanford tonight in second-round action of the 2006 Volleyball Hall of Fame Morgan Classic at Springfield College’s Blake Arena. Game scores were 30-22, 30-26, 30-25.
Penn State, ranked #11 nationally, was the only one of the four teams present to finish 2-0 in the classic.
In other second-round action, host Springfield put up a valiant effort for the second straight night, but lost to #8-ranked Ohio State, 40-42, 30-21, 30-27, 30-25.
Penn State’s O’Dell is a 6-7 senior setter from Rochester, N.Y. and McQuaid Jesuit High School. He finished with 45 set assists in 77 total attempts. He also had 3 kills in 5 hitting attempts. Last night, in Penn State’s 3-1 victory over Ohio State, O’Dell had 50 set assists.
Also on the all-tournament team were 6-9 senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair HS) from Penn State, 6-5 junior middle hitter Brett Versen (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville HS) from Ohio State, 6-0 sophomore libero Conor Martin (Avon Lake, Ohio/St. Edward HS) from Ohio State, 6-6 freshman outside hitter
Ryan Fredrickson (Manahawkin, N.J.) from Springfield, 6-0 sophomore outside
Eric Palumbo (Rochester, N.Y.) from Springfield, and 6-4 senior opposite Ben Reddy (Waukesha, Wisc./Waukesha South HS) from Stanford.
Other award winners included Springfield’s
Palumbo in the Spiking Contest, and Stanford 6-6 senior outside hitter Nick Manov (Santa Cruz, Calif./Mt. Madonna HS) in the Serving Contest.
In addition, Springfield’s 6-1 sophomore outside hitter
Javier Rosario (San Juan, Puerto Rico) was named winner of the Sportsmanship Award.
In the opening match, Penn State was pretty much in control in games 1 and 3. The Cardinal led through much of game 2, but Penn State took the lead at 24-23 and was never headed after that. Meerstein finished with an outstanding .833 hitting percentage (10 kills in 12 attempts). Freshman middle hitter Matt Anderson (West Seneca, N.Y./West Seneca HS) had a very fine .429 hitting percentage with 7 kills for the Nittany Lions.
Stanford was led by Reddy, who garnered a match-high 18 kills.
In the second match of the evening, underdog Springfield actually won game #1 by a score of 42-40 as each team had countless game points. But Ohio State righted the ship to win the final three games, 30-21, 30-27, 30-25. The Buckeyes were led by 6-3 senior outside hitter Sam Stevens (Miami, Fla./Westminster Christian) with 14 kills and a .370 hitting percentage, and 6-3 sophomore outside hitter Robbie Klein (Cincinnati, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller HS) with 12 kills and a .478 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Daniel Mathews (Shorewood, Wisc./Shorewood HS) had 53 set assists.
For Springfield, Fredrickson had 16 kills. He was topped by Palumbo with 20 kills and a .371 hitting percentage. Rosario and 6-4 sophomore opposite
David Smietana (Buffalo, N.Y.) had 11 kills each. Smietana hit .300. Sophomore setter
Chris Shekell (Rochester, N.Y.) had 51 set assists.
With seven national championships to his credit, Charlie Sullivan will enter his 15th season as head coach of the men's volleyball team in 2013. In 14 previous years at the helm, Sullivan owns an overall record of 224-155 for a .591 winning percentage. Read more.
