Each week, The Ball State Daily News sports staff picks its PPQ — the player, play and quote of the week. And, with the help of our online readers, the weekly fan choice is also featured.
Here's this week's best:
Player: Ethan Pheister, men's volleyball
On Monday, Pheister was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Men's Division I-II National Player of the Week. The senior setter had 45 assists to guide four Cardinals to double-digit kill performances. Defensively, Pheister had nine digs and four block assists in Ball State's 3-0 sweep of IPFW in the MIVA Tournament first round.
Play: Amanda Carpenter, softball
With one out in the bottom of the seventh of Ball State's game against Toledo on Sunday, Carpenter took an outside pitch and drove it over the wall in left-center field, scoring two runs to earn a 13-12 walk-off win for the Cardinals.
Quote: "Defense is something that we've continued to work on. It hasn't been consistent for us, but we played at a championship level this weekend."— Coach Greg Beals on the baseball team's defense in its series win at Central Michigan
Fan Choice: Eduardo Pavia, men's tennis
In a landslide, Pavia's 76 votes (52 percent) topped Ethan Pheister of the men's volleyball team, who received 45 votes (31 percent) in this week's poll. Pavia was named the MAC Player of the Week on Wednesday for the second time this season after winning his No. 1 singles match against Northern Illinois on Saturday to move to 4-0 in MAC play at the No. 1 spot.
This week's PPQ + Fan Choice is the final edition of the 2009-10 school year. Check back with The Ball State Daily News in the Fall to get back into the action.