After four consecutive losses, the Ball State University men's volleyball team will get a chance to recover against two Division III teams.
The Cardinals (1-4) will play the Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7:30 p.m. today and Juniata College at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Worthen Arena.
"These two matches are a chance to see if we improved on the things that we struggled on the previous weekend," coach Joel Walton said.
The Cardinals enter these matches after losses last weekend to No. 15 George Mason University and St. Francis University.
In addition, Ball State has won two of its last 14 games during this losing streak.
"I think this team has underachieved," Walton said. "We need to get our guys more confidence and see them play better [with] more success on the court."
Walton said the biggest reason for the losing streak has been because of the Cardinals' youth.
Sunday against St. Francis, Ball State started one freshman and four sophomores. Last season, Matt McCarthy and Ian Peckler were the only freshmen and sophomores to play more than half of the Cardinals' games.
"Four of the seven guys we are putting out there are sophomore and freshmen," Walton said. "Our youth is taking a toll right now, and we should get better and better after we play more together on the court."
The losing streak has placed some additional pressure on the young team, who are trying to live up to the program's history, Walton said.
Ball State has not had a losing season since 1999 and a Cardinal player has been named a first team All-American seven times.
"There should be some pressure, and it should be a motivator to show that we can play better than what the results have been," Walton said. "These are young guys and they are only going to be respected as they earn it. Right now they are not All-American, they have the potential to be, but they aren't playing like it right now."
In addition to the youth, Walton said the team's inconsistent passing has hurt the team.
Against St. Francis, the Cardinals had 23 attack errors and a season-low 39 assists. Walton said the poor passing hurt freshman setter Jeff Schmitz, who was starting his second match.
Last season, Ball State averaged 47.5 assists per match and 18.9 attack errors per match.
Walton also said a large part of the team's offensive success relies on outside attacker Nick Meyer.
Despite having a career-high 30 kills Friday against George Mason, Meyer has not had 15 or more kills in back-to-back matches this season.
Last season, Meyer had a team-high 332 kills, and averaged 4.55 kills per game.
"Meyer has to have two good nights back-to-back for us," Walton said. "On his off nights it's difficult to be successful."
Milwaukee enters tonight's match having lost its last two matches, and lost in straight games to the two Division I teams they played this season.
Juniata will play its season opener Saturday against the Cardinals, and is ranked No. 1 in Division III.
Juniata has won four straight Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Division III Championships, and has seven seniors returning from a 14-13 team last season.
"[Juniata] has some kids who know how to compete and win games, even if they are Division III and don't get scholarships," Walton said.
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