Even with conference play in the books, the Ball State men's volleyball team will not be taking its final two matches of the regular season lightly.
Ball State will take on Penn State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and St. Francis on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. as well. Both matches will be home matches at Worthen Arena.
Both matches will be apart of the Don Shondell/Active Ankle Challenge, which will honor Shondell's influence on men's volleyball.
Senior Anders Nelson said he was looking forward to playing in an event for Shondell.
"I actually talked to Don for a while last night and told him this was his tournament. He patted me on the back and told me it was our tournament," Nelson said. "There's obviously a huge amount of respect for the Shondell's in our program, in Muncie and in volleyball around the area.
"It's a little added motivation and a way to give back for all the hard work he put into the program."
The seniors on the team – Nelson, J.D. Gasparovic, Dominic Spadavecchio, Lee Meyer and Marcus Imwalle – will be honored on Saturday after the St. Francis match as a part of Senior Night.
Even with all of the honorary events, freshman Graham McIlvaine said he's focusing on taking down No. 9 Penn State.
The Cardinals were unable to beat the Nittany Lions in two previous matches this season.
"Personally to me, I've always wanted to beat Penn State," he said. "Even though its not conference doesn't mean we shouldn't be playing well. We should be playing well as often as possible. For me, it's just a matter of going into the weekend and beating a ranked team."
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