Antelopes Upset No. 11 Ohio State For First MIVA Tourney Win

Saturday, April 20

Columbus, OH

4:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-14

Ohio State

19-8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Grand Canyon	25	23	11	25	15	3
Ohio State	21	25	25	16	13	2

Grand Canyon won its first MIVA Tournament match, first match over a nationally-ranked team and first-ever win over Ohio State in a 3-2 victory at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

Antelopes Upset No. 11 Ohio State For First MIVA Tourney Win

4/20/2013 7:37:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Jordon Tarantino scored Grand Canyon’s final four points -- three on kills and one on a solo block -- to lead the Antelopes to a shocking upset of No. 11 Ohio State, 3-2, in a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association quarterfinal match at St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday.

It marked Grand Canyon’s first-ever win in the MIVA tournament, first over a nationally-ranked team and first victory over Ohio State, the 2011 national champion. GCU (17-14) will play top-seed Lewis in Romeoville, Ill., in one of two MIVA semifinal matches Wednesday. Ball State takes on host Loyola-Chicago in the other.

The Antelopes, who came in 0-8 against the Buckeyes, won by set scores of 25-21, 23-25, 11-25, 25-16, 15-13.

Tarantino finished with a team-high 18 kills. He hit .304 (18-4-46) and added nine digs and four blocks, including two solos.

“The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the resiliency of this team,” said GCU coach Jeremy Price. “We lost a tough second set and nothing went right in the third. The team responded with an unbelievable fourth set. We dominated the fourth set.”

In the fifth, the Antelopes led 9-7, but the Buckeyes (19-8) scored five of the next six points to take a 12-10 lead. Ben Ponnet had a kill to cut it to 12-11 and Tarantino had the first of his four-point run to tie the match. Ohio State answered a Tarantino block with a kill to tie it 13-13, but Tarantino ended it with consecutive points.

Ten of Grand Canyon’s 15 fifth-set points came on kills. The Antelopes combined to hit .472 (19-2-36) in the final two sets, a great comeback after hitting -.087 (6-10-46) in the third.

Along with hitting at a high percentage -- the Antelopes hit .562 (9-0-16) in the fourth -- they scored four early points on service aces. Ponnet started the set off with three aces, while a fourth point came on a combo block from Ryan Mather and Keith Smith. Mather had a kill and service ace to give GCU a 6-1 advantage.

Senior libero Trent Bruns had 17 digs, one short of his season high.

“I’m especially proud of our three seniors (Tarantino, Bruns and Jared Goldberg),” added Price. “They really came through in the clutch.”

A balanced attack saw all five of GCU attackers have at least seven kills. Following Tarantino, Ponnet had 12. Middle blockers Mather and Christian Ward each had nine and Bob Houser chipped in seven to go with eight digs. Ward, a freshman in his first post season match, hit .667 (9-1-12) and had a solo block and two more assists. Mather added three block assists, setting a new school record for total blocks in a season at 109. Chris Lockwood had 108 in 2010.

Smith finished with 48 assists and seven digs.

“We’ll enjoy this for a little while, but we know we have a very tough opponent to get ready for Wednesday,” added Price.

GCU 3, OSU 2