It’s been as up and down for Ball State as it can get this year.
Just ask Ball State coach Steve Shondell. He has watched his team go from two ugly, three-set losses last weekend to this weekend when the Cardinals swept Eastern Michigan and fell to the defending Mid-American Conference tournament champion Central Michigan in five sets (29-31, 25-23, 29-27, 24-26, 17-15) on Saturday night.
“We went from our lowest low to our highest high in seven days,” Shondell said. “And sometimes that happens when you dig down deep and do some soul searching [to] just come back and respond the following week. And our team did and really played two incredible matches this week.”
The five-set thriller was one of the closest matches Shondell said he has seen, after four sets went into overtime, including the final deciding set.
Ball State’s blocking took control of the fifth set as the Cardinals jumped out to a 10-7 lead before Central Michigan rallied for the next four points. After Ball State tied it at 15, Central Michigan picked up two kills to seal the match.
But despite the narrow loss, Shondell said it was exactly what Ball State needed going into next week’s conference tournament.
“It was our best weekend of the year, to be honest with you,” Shondell said. “It was the highest level that we’ve played all year.”
Shondell said defense was the difference between last week’s performance and this week’s. He credited assistant coach Kelli Miller for adjustments to the back row made for both of the matches against Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Ball State posted more than 80 digs in both matches.
All-MAC libero Catie Fredrich led the team with 24 digs after posting 29 in just three sets against Eastern Michigan.
Ball State’s defensive performance also included a near blocking match as its win over Bowling Green where it recorded 21 total blocks. The Cardinals stuffed 20 balls against the Chippewas with senior outside hitter Kara Bates recording four solo blocks and four block assists to go along with her team-high 16 kills.
Now that the regular season is over, Shondell said he is happy with his team for handling adversity so well after losing three players to significant injuries.
“That’s the thing about this team: they never quit this year even through all of the adversity and los[ing] all those players,” he said. “They just stayed positive, kept working hard and kept believing. Now here we are with the opportunity to go to the conference tournament.”
With the loss, Ball State will enter the MAC tournament with the No. 8 seed and have to face the No. 1 seed Ohio, who swept Ball State in three sets earlier this season.
“We’re going into the conference tournament off our best weekend of the year, and that’s all you can ask [for],” Shondell said.
