When Ball State travels to Indianapolis this weekend, it will be the last tune up before the team enters its most grueling part of the schedule.
After losing two days of practice because of a midweek road loss to IPFW, Ball State still has plenty to do.
"We've got so much to work on," coach Steve Shondell said. "There's so many things that I wanted to do that we have not been able to do."
Ball State will play Georgia State, North Texas and IUPUI in the IUPUI Jaguars Hampton Inn Invitational starting on Friday. Last season, Ball State swept IUPUI in three sets.
But after this weekend, Ball State will be making a long trip to Colorado for the Hampton Inn & Suites Northern Colorado Classic, which Shondell said boasts a number of great teams.
"The Northern Colorado tournament has three fantastic teams," Shondell said. "It's going to be a really tough tournament before we come back to our tournament with Pittsburgh and Wyoming."
Shondell said the non-conference schedule this season is the most difficult the team has had in his three years as coach.
But he knows eventually the tougher schedule will pay off for Ball State.
"The competition makes you better, but it also exploits your weaknesses," Shondell said. "This is from top [to] the bottom the best [non-conference schedule] we've played in the last three years."
Ball State has had trouble finding enough practice time this week to give the new rotation in 2012 more experience playing together.
Shondell said he wants to avoid scheduling midweek matches in the future so he can give his team as much rest and practice before tournament weekends.
"You [have] got to utilize that time between a tournament and that next tournament to practice," he said.
Ball State has had trouble defending the net early in the season despite Shondell saying he expects this team to be a much better blocking team than the 2011 team.
The Cardinals have recorded 1.37 blocks per game through four matches, down from 1.93 in 2011.
Shondell said senior middle blocker Lisa Scott will be a key as she still tries to adjust to playing again after transferring.
"Getting Lisa [Scott] going is going to be huge for us," Shondell said. "She's very capable of being a good player; it's just that she hasn't played in two years. Give her three or four weeks, and she's going to be tough to stop."
Shondell is confident the team will improve from its rough start so far compared to 2011 where they started off 9-0.
"I really feel better about this team now than I did the previous two years at this point in time," Shondell said. "Even though our record was better in the past, we've played better competition."
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