The men's volleyball team outplayed that of visiting Lindenwood the entire match Sunday to sweep and improve to 4-0 on the season. Lindenwood dropped to an even 1-1.
No. 10 Ball State struggled coming out of the gates in the first game, but was much better than Lindenwood. Ball State only managed to hit .185 in the first game, but made up for that by getting nine blocks and limiting the Lions to .161, lowest of the match. The Cardinals won that game 30-19.
Throughout the match defense provided the huge gap between the two teams. The Cardinals had 43 digs in the victory, led by 10 from Jary Delgado, and also collected 12.5 blocks compared to Lindenwood's four. Head coach Joel Walton pointed to their defense and blocking as being a big focus for the team.
"Our defense was really good today," Walton said. "Even though the blocking numbers went down after we had nine in Game 1, we still were able to get a lot of touches on their attacks. We played a nice match today."
Despite leading the team in digs, Delgado, making his first start of the season, also led the team with 10 kills. Both Doug Market and Matt Denmark chipped in with seven kills each. Setter Keith Schunzel again directed the charge with 42 assists on the game and also helped with six digs of his own.
"It's a good start to the season," says Walton. "With that said though, we still have things to work on. We know we have the ability to play great defense and we have the ability to play exceptional on offense. I thought today we played our most consistent match from start to finish. I liked the way we played today."
Ball State plays its first road games of the season, traveling to New Jersey this weekend for rematches against Concordia Friday at 5 p.m. and Rutgers-Newark Saturday at 7 p.m. Rutgers-Newark will be the host school and conference foe Loyola-Chicago will also play.
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