After Friday night, Ball State is one of five schools in Division I-II without a blemish on its record, downing Mt. Olive in four sets (25-19, 26-28, 25-22, 25-20) in a battle of unbeatens.
The Cardinals not only handed the Trojans their first match-loss of the season, but also their first set-loss.
In their hour and fifty-minute match against the Trojans, the Cardinals touted some of their most impressive offensive numbers of the young season, coming against a team that had been holding its opponents to a .168 hitting clip.
As a team Ball State hit .387, nearly doubling its season average coming in of .194.
The high hitting numbers included double digit kills from three Cardinals.
Senior outside attacker Greg Herceg again, in accustomed fashion for this season, led the Cardinals in kills with 21, a season high—one shy of a career high; he now has a team-high 64 on the year.
Herceg’s counter part, fellow outsider hitter sophomore Shane Witner doubled his season total number of kills with 12.
Matt Leske, the familiar anchor in the middle for the Cardinals registered 10 kills, along with his five assisted blocks.
The lone bright spot for Mt. Olive was outside hitter Angel Dache, who led the team with 20 kills. The Cardinals knew about the potency of Dache’s offense coming into the match, and it looked like the Cardinals were letting Dache get his and not let anybody else of the Trojans get going.
Ball State has a quick turnaround and are back in action against Barton College tomorrow at noon.
