After suffering their first loss of the season to Grand Canyon on Sunday, Ball State coach Joel Walton said his team needed to take a look in the mirror and figure out its identity.
“We need the guys to reassess who they are as people and competitors,” Walton said Sunday.
Miscommunication and submissive play led to Ball State’s demise against Grand Canyon, and left not only Walton but also senior outside hitter Greg Herceg looking for answers.
“We’ve got to find something,” Herceg said. “We’re just looking for somebody to step up.”
Herceg and senior middle attacker Matt Leske individually stepped up and swept the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference awards, winning Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively.
Herceg and Leske only can control the right side and middle of the court, and with last year’s offensive leader senior Larry Wrather sidelined with a shoulder injury, the left side still has many unanswered questions. Junior Urim Demirovski, sophomore Shane Witmer and freshman Jack Lesure have all shown flashes of great play, but have lacked consistency on a night-to-night basis.
“We’re not really sure where we are going to go with the left side position,” Walton said. “There are going to be opportunities for those guys to play until it makes no sense to them out.”
The mental aspects of the game have been dissected the past few days in the Cardinals’ practices, along with some technical drills.
“We worked a lot on our serve-receive process and our overall demeanor on the court,” Walton said.
In the Grand Canyon matchup, words started being exchanged through the net after each point, and it seemed to lend benefit to the Antelopes and hamper the Cardinals. While Walton doesn’t want his team to try and change themselves into the bad boys of volleyball, he does want them to respond in other ways.
“I would prefer our guys do our talking with their play,” Walton said. “I’m not telling our guys just stand there and take it, I want to see them compete and do what it necessary to win.”
Both these points of emphasis will be put to test in a quick turnaround for Ball State as I-69 rival IPFW comes to Worthen Arena tonight.
IPFW brings in a serving mentality that looks for points, as well as a few players that like to let it be known when they score.
“IPFW is a team that is going to go after their serves and try and score off of them,” Walton said. “They have a couple guys [Eddie Rivera, Ramon Burgos and Omar Rivera] that like to talk through the net, and that’s known throughout the league.”
As Ball State searches for its identity, IPFW knows what to expect from Ball State in the match.
“They are going to have some schemes that take away our middle attacks,” Walton said. “We have to make sure our attacks are diversified and that we come out ready to play.”
The match against IPFW for Ball State is not only important because it is a MIVA game, after it starts a three-game road trip against the top three teams in the conference and will show the direction of where the Ball State season is going.
“I want to see our team step on the court with some attitude and play up to their ability,” Walton said. “I want to see can we rebound and get back to the level of play we were at earlier this season?”
