After a pair of crushing defeats at the hands of Mid-AmericanConference opponents this weekend, the Ball State women'svolleyball team (10-12, 5-5 MAC) welcomes non-conference rivalWright State tonight to Worthen Arena.
The match comes at an inopportune time for the strugglingCardinals, head coach Randy Litchfield said.
"These non-league matches are really odd for both teams," hesaid. "You normally like to work on some new wrinkles. This is theyear we probably have to work on ironing some wrinkles out."
Non-conference matches in the middle of the conference scheduleare often little more than headaches for teams, but Litchfield saidhe sees the match with the Raiders as much more.
"You can look at it all different ways," he said. "Personally, Ilook at it as a chance to move forward."
One of the main things Litchfield is hoping to find againstWright State is a sense of consistency.
"We're just sick of the roller-coaster ride," he said. "We'veobviously shown how good we can be, and it seems like hours later,we can be just as bad. A realist knows that young teams are goingto play some bad volleyball. Our problem is dealing with adversityduring a match. We seem to be fine when we get a week of practiceafter a bad performance. We need to solve problems a lotfaster."
The Cardinals hope to do that against a strong 13-10 WrightState team that is coming off a 3-1 win against Illinois-Chicago onSaturday.
"Typically they are a very-solid program," Litchfield said."They are always very competitive within their conference."
Ball State will compete with more than the Raiders tonight.Litchfield said the team is fatigued and that he has not done muchto help correct the condition.
"We had an adversity-related practice today," he said. "It wasnot easy, so I've probably furthered the problem."
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