Riding a four-match winning streak, the Ball State women's volleyball team (7-7; 2-0 Mid-American Conference) has a pair of MAC matches this weekend. The Cardinals visit Eastern Michigan (13-1; 2-0) tonight to take on the Eagles before returning home for a showdown with Ohio (10-3; 1-0) on Sunday.
While Ball State has played well as of late, head coach Randy Litchfield said he is unsure as to how the team will perform against two strong conference opponents.
"We've been so inconsistent that it is really hard for me to guess how we'll play a team," he said. "Northern Illinois had a better good record, and we took care of business then. Both of these teams are exceptional."
Eastern Michigan enters the weekend having won its last six matches. The Eagles are a well-balanced team that has outhit opponents this season by 120 percentage points (.234 to .114) and is outdigging them by more than 2.2 digs per game.
Although Ball State is used to playing on the road this year, Litchfield says conference road trips are still much more intense.
"The motivation is significantly different," he said. "When you play teams multiple times in a season, you have to establish yourselves. What is most important for us is to be really competitive and to not give anything away."
Ball State comes into Sunday's match with Ohio holding a 31-2 series advantage over the Bobcats, including 26-straight victories. Ohio has won nine consecutive matches this season though, and it has not tasted defeat in nearly a month.
"Ohio has more than proven themselves with their out-of-conference play," he said. "I feel like Ohio is well ahead of us right now, based on comparisons of performance."
The Cardinals will look to maintain the solid play they have been getting from their two main middle players, redshirt-sophomore Melissa Oliver and sophomore Kristin Westhof, to help sophomore outside attacker Sarah Obras carry the offensive load.
Obras currently leads the MAC in kills per game with a 5.78 average, which is also good for 11th best in the nation.
"If we can continue to get Mel and Kristin involved in the offense, that takes a lot of pressure off of Sarah," Litchfield said. "I think that may be the biggest key to our season."
More than anything, Litchfield sees this weekend as an opportunity to figure out where Ball State ranks in the MAC.
"We're very unproven," he said. "I think both of these matches, if nothing else, are real good gauges as to if we are any good or not."
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