The Ball State women's volleyball team (11-12, 5-5 Mid-AmericanConference) wants more than a chance to move back toward the top ofthe Western Division.
The Cardinals also want revenge.
The team will welcome MAC rivals Western Michigan (12-9, 5-5MAC) and Akron (11-10, 6-3 MAC) to Worthen Arena this weekend.
On Saturday, the Cardinals will face the Broncos of WMU, whohanded them an embarrassing 3-0 defeat this past weekend inKalamazoo.
Head coach Randy Litchfield said the team has analyzed the lossand realizes what it must do to win this time.
"I think their game is a net game of hitting and blocking," hesaid. "We allowed them to excel at those areas and failed to excelat what we're good at, such as serving and defense. In Kalamazoo,we had our worst serving match of the year. We must serve toughenough to break them down."
After WMU, Ball State squares off against Akron. The two squadslast met in last year's MAC Tournament Championship, which resultedin a 3-2 Cardinal victory.
According to Litchfield, the Zips are still trying to pullthemselves together, like much of the MAC.
"They've got a couple of really good players back, but they alsolost a couple of good players," he said. "They're like the rest ofthe conference. They are trying to find their way."
On offense, Western Michigan and Akron are very similar,Litchfield said, and he hopes his team can take advantage ofthis.
"They both run a lot of interior place sets," he said. "We hopethat we will need similar execution."
As the season starts to wind down, the pressure on all MACschools to pull it together is growing stronger by the day. InLitchfield's opinion, Ball State has just as good a chance as anyschool to take control of the West Division, and it all starts thisweekend.
"With six to go, this is as big as it gets," he said. "Somebodyin the West is going to get hot and separate themselves. We playfour of six at home, and it might as well be us that gets hot."
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