Stationed at the forefront of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference standings and on the cusp of a national ranking, Ball State will try and show supremacy over a team many coaches thought to be parallel to the Cardinals in the preseason.
“Grand Canyon is a team a lot of coaches in [MIVA] consider equal to us, if not better than us,” Ball State men’s volleyball coach Joel Walton said.
Though Grand Canyon will make the trek from Phoenix to Worthen Arena with a sub-.500 record (4-5), all of its losses have come to teams ranked in the top-15.
A weekend sweep of the Antelopes would bring the Cardinals to a perfect 9-0 record and make it even harder for voters to leave Ball State off their top-15 ballots, but Walton sees the matches being just as critical at a conference level.
“We need to continue to take advantage of these winnable matchups at home to improve our seeding for the conference tournament,” Walton said.
Walton hopes his players grasp the gravity of the situation as well.
“If I have to sit down with my guys and give them a big motivational rah-rah speech before every match, then there’s something wrong with my players,” Walton said. “They need to understand the importance of certain matches on the schedule, like both of these matches.”
Ball State leads the all-time series 8-1, but last year the Antelopes and Cardinals sparked what looks like could become a rivalry.
When the Cardinals traveled down to Arizona to take on the Antelopes last year, they were in position to stay at home for a round of the MIVA tournament. But after some questionable calls from officials in three sets, the Cardinals dropped the match.
When the tournament seedings shook out, Ball State was marked to travel back to Grand Canyon. In four sets, with two going into overtime, the Cardinals not only defeated the Antelopes, but also finished the their season.
Ball State is anchored by its defense, namely middle hitters junior Kevin Owens and senior Matt Leske, both of whom have individually won MIVA Defensive Player of the Week and are No. 1 and No. 2 in blocks respectively.
Walton hopes his twin towers can take advantage of Grand Canyon’s young, inexperienced and platooning middles, while neutralizing junior outside hitter Ben Ponnet, who is first team all-MIVA and leads the Antelopes in kills with 96 kills.
Outside of Owens, Leske and senior libero Tommy Rouse, the rest of the Cardinals lineup this weekend can be left up to a magic 8 ball. Just about every other position for the Cardinals has two adequate players that are interchangeable. Nine other Cardinals have seen considerable playing time, bringing the total to 12 players for six slots.
“It does provide a challenge for our opponents when we can put some many different sets of personnel on the court,” Walton said. “... Our players understand if they’re playing well, they are going to get a chance to get on they court. I think that’s a healthy thing, if guys thought we were going to stick with a certain group of guys regardless of how they play, that would be pretty frustrating.
“It’s so important for our entire roster to be ready to go every night.”
With home-court advantage, playing a travel-weary opponent, defensive studs and a plethora of interchangeable players, Walton stresses that it is important to forget the game is played on the court, not on paper.
“We’ve got some advantages this week, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to walk away with one or two W’s.”
