In December coaches from the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association predicted the Ball State University men's volleyball team to finish the season in fifth place.
Following Friday's match, Cardinals' players said teams and coaches in the conference need to rethink the preseason rankings.
Ball State defeated No. 8 Ohio State University 26-30, 30-28, 32-30, 31-29 at Worthen Arena and is half-a-match behind the Buckeyes for first place in the MIVA.
"We've been severely underestimated by a lot of teams," outside attacker Patrick Durbin said. "Hopefully this win [Friday] will send a message to not only guys in our conference but to other teams around nation that we have a good team."
Prior to its match against Ball State, Ohio State (7-3, 5-1 MIVA) had lost four games in conference play and was leading the MIVA in attack percentage. However, on Friday the Buckeyes had a season-low .182 attack percentage.
Outside attacker Marcus Imwalle said the team played well and with wins like this more people need to recognize the Cardinals as a top team in the conference.
"They need to respect us a little bit more," Imwalle said. "Being ranked fifth in the MIVA preseason rankings, that's not what kind of team we are. We are definitely better than that."
Outside attacker Todd Chamberlain said despite their preseason rankings, the Cardinals are legitimate contenders to win their first MIVA championship since 2002.
Friday's win was the third-highest ranked opponent Ball State has defeated in the last three seasons.
After starting the season 0-6 against nationally ranked teams, the Cardinals have won their last two matches against top-15 ranked teams.
Coach Joel Walton said beating Ohio State sends a message, but a bigger message can be sent when Ball State plays MIVA road matches in March and April.
"To really send a message and make people look at us as a contender we got to keep winning and win on the road," he said.
Against Ohio State, Ball State had three outside attackers finish the match with at least 13 kills, including Durbin who had a match-high 22 kills.
Chamberlain, who had a season-high 16 kills, said the Cardinals were offensively successful because early in the match Ball State was setting balls to its middle attackers.
"Once you start running the middle like that it frees up the outside and once you establish that it was a lot easier to hit on the outside," Chamberlain said. "The second game I hit one-on-one, which doesn't make it very hard."
Durbin said it was good to have the outside attackers perform well, especially after the middle attackers carried the team's offense in two non-conference wins last week.
"It was the middles last weekend, the outsides this weekend and as soon as we get everyone rolling it's going to be scary," Durbin said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
