Ball State's men's volleyball team split a pair of home Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association matches this weekend, disappointing head coach Joel Walton.
Friday's tangle with Ohio State (8-4, 4-0) turned into a five-set battle, with the Buckeyes prevailing 26-30, 33-31, 30-28, 26-30, 15-11. In the mind of Walton, the match should have never gone to five sets.
"We didn't jump on them when we had the chance, and allowed them into the match," Walton said. "We got into a dogfight, and they played with more heart than us. This is the kind of match I think we should win."
The match started well enough for the Cardinals (9-4, 4-3), who moved ahead 27-19 in the first set before cruising from there. Ohio State responded by overcoming late deficits in the next two sets. In the third the Cardinals hit .419 but couldn't cash in.
Ball State won the fourth, as outside attacker Kyle Weindel pounded two of his match-high 21 kills for the Cards' final two points.
The teams traded blows to start the fifth, with a kill and block from middle attacker Matt Denmark giving the Cards a 10-9 lead and seemingly the momentum. The Buckeyes, who hit .615 in the final set, would have none of it though, ending the match with a 6-1 run.
Senior Josh Zuidema (16 kills), Grabovac (13) and Denmark backed Weindel in the hitting department, while junior setter Keith Schunzel tallied 68 assists and 16 digs.
GAME 2: BSU vs. MERCYHURST
In Saturday's match, the Cardinals defeated Mercyhurst (3-6, 1-3) in straight sets, 30-26, 30-11, 30-19.
"We played a lot better against Mercyhurst," Walton said. "We started the match average, but the guys started to play the way I want them to in the games two and three."
After the first game, Walton replaced senior Josh Zuidema with senior Josh Lee at outside attacker. Lee, who only played the last two game, was second on the team in points with 13.5. Junior outside attacker Jary Delgado, who played all three games. led the Cardinals with 14 points.
Lee also tied Delgado for the team lead in kills with 12.
Heading into the game, Walton said he wanted to see the offense run more through the middle attackers than the outside attackers. He worked with his team all week in practice to accomplish this. He felt it worked against Mercyhurst.
"We forced Mercyhurst to respect the fact that we wanted to set our middles," Walton said.
Although Walton was pleased with the team's improvement against Mercyhurst, he said the weekend split hurt the team in conference standings.
"This weekend was not what we wanted," Walton said. "We needed to beat Ohio State. Now we've lost three games in our conference, and that's going to make it hard for us to finish at the top."
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