Ball State men’s volleyball has established itself to be one of the better defensive teams in the MIVA, but head coach Joel Walton knows the offense isn’t where it needs to be.
“We continue to address the offense, as best we can,” Walton said. “We feel like our team has played good defense so far this year, but our offense has lagged behind.”
Walton’s team is holding its opponents to a conference-leading .132 hitting clip. The Cardinals also lead the MIVA in blocks per set, lead by middle attackers senior Matt Leske and junior Kevin Owens, who are No. 1 and No. 2 in blocks per set individually.
The defense has led Ball State to be the only school to boast an undefeated record of the 55 programs in Division I-II men’s volleyball.
Getting its offense into a rhythm will be key for the Cardinals, who start MIVA conference play this weekend against Quincy on Friday and Lindenwood on Saturday.
Where the Cardinals have struggled — but showed progress — is scoring on offense efficiently. For the past two weeks in practice, Walton has been working with his team to try and create seamless transitions from defense to offense and getting guys into positions on the court where they can be productive.
“We’ve been focusing very hard on approach routes, getting our guys to get off the net and back to the ball better,” Walton said. “In the first couple weeks we were getting players stuck at the net, and a ball would be set to them, and they wouldn’t have any approach to go and attack.”
“We tell our servers, ‘If you go up there and serve it to easy, you might as well put a helmet on,’” Walton said.
This season Ball State is serving at a lower percentage than its opponents, and that has contributed to getting the Cardinals out of position early in rallies, making it even harder to get into a good offensive rhythm.
Another remedy for Ball State’s offense Walton is trying is starting senior Dan Wichmann over junior Graham McIlvaine at setter. Wichmann came in last weekend in the second set against Mt. Olive and was an integral part in the Cardinals’ big numbers.
Out of the 55 programs in men’s Division I-II, Ball State is the only team with an undefeated record.
Despite no blemishes on its résumé, the Cardinals received no votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s top 15 poll this week. This is due to the caliber of opponents the team has played thus far, and the lack of a victory against a marquee opponent.
And while Ball State doesn’t play a top 15 team this weekend, two more wins — this time against conference foes — would make it hard for voters to disregard the Cardinals while filling out their ballots.
Conference play is especially important in the MIVA because not only does it determine seeds in the conference tournament, but location of matches as well. One conference loss could mean the difference from playing at home, to traveling to Phoenix to play Grand Canyon come tournament time, as it did last year for Ball State.
And with the parity in the MIVA this year, Walton expects every game to have a gravid importance.
“I see every conference game being a big one this year,” Walton said. “Every team can beat every team this year.”
