Playing an elimination match in less than 24 hours, coach Joel Walton still is not completely sure who his team will compete against.
The coach knows the Ball State University men's volleyball team will play Quincy University, but who exactly will be on the court for the Hawks is a different matter.
With Quincy having the largest roster in the conference and splitting its team to play multiple matches in a day throughout the season, Walton said he does not know who will be Quincy's starting lineup when it plays Ball State in their conference tournament quarterfinals match at 7:30 p.m. in Worthen Arena.
"They are going to be a combined group for one of the first times this year," Walton said. "It's hard to scout them because they have played so many different players. We will try to come up with what we think is their best group."
Quincy has 26 players on its active roster - 11 more players than Ball State - and had 49 matches in the regular season.
The Cardinals (16-9, 6-4 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) enter the MIVA Tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Hawks (17-32, 0-10 MIVA) finished the regular season in last place and played a majority of their non-conference matches against Division III and NAIA teams.
Walton said what Quincy had to do this season was not an ideal situation. He also said it splitting its squad and playing more matches than anyone in the conference was not something Quincy coach Hardley Foster wanted to do this season.
"I know coach Foster would much rather play a normal schedule and have his group play together for the entire year, but you don't always get the pretty clean package," Walton said. "Sometimes you have to adapt. In what he told me his university is now seeing a great value in their men's volleyball program and he can do things differently in the future."
Ball State won its two previous matches against Quincy during the regular season. The Cardinals won in a four-game road match March 5 and swept the Hawks on March 28 at Worthen Arena.
In that most recent match, Quincy played the entire match with 10 players because the rest of its team was playing a match in Wisconsin against the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Despite guessing who will travel with Quincy for tonight's match, outside attacker Todd Chamberlain playing Quincy twice already has helped Ball State feel more prepared.
"They've got a big roster," he said. "They spin the wheel on who they decide to bring, but the good thing is as of right now we have everyone, literally everyone they have to offer, and we played tough and played well against them."
Along with Walton being unsure of Quincy's starting lineup, the coach said he has not finalized his starting roster.
Walton said he does not know if First Team All-MIVA middle attacker J.D. Gasparovic will play in the match. Gasparovic leads the MIVA in attack percentage, blocks and blocks per game average but missed the final two regular season matches last week because of mononucleosis.
"As much as we would like to put J.D. on the court we are not going to put him risk," Walton said. "We need a doctor's blessing."
If Gasparovic receives the team doctor's approval to play tonight he will most likely be in the entire match, Walton said. The coach also said would not voluntarily keep Gasparovic on the bench to have the middle attacker more rested for Ball State's potential MIVA Tournament semifinals match against No. 12 Lewis University on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
"These aren't matches you mess around with and try to get guys playing time," Walton said. "In the tournament you want to be efficient and fine tuning what you do. You want to have my best players on the court focused and playing with energy."
This is the second consecutive year Ball State has played Quincy in the MIVA Tournament quarterfinals at Worthen Arena. The Cardinals won last season's match in four games, despite prior to the match multiple players and Walton said that anything less than a sweep would be unacceptable.
Libero Billy Ebel and Chamberlain said this season the team would like a sweep, but they are more concerned about getting the win. Ebel said though, if Ball State plays to its potential it should be a short match.
"I think we should hold them to under 20. I don't think they should earn more points than that," Ebel said. "I think we are a way better team and go into that match just thinking we are going to roll over these people then we are going to get beat."
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
