On Friday Harvard downed No. 9 Penn State in a clean sweep 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-23), effectively ending the longest winning streak in men’s volleyball.
The last time Penn State men’s volleyball team lost an Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference game President Barack Obama was a little more than a month into his first presidency. On March 7, 2008, George Mason topped Penn State. That weekend 10,000 B.C. topped the box office, and later that year Penn State topped everyone, culminating in a national championship.
For the next five years the Nittany Lions would hold unblemished conference records, until Friday.
While the 61-match EIVA winning streak pales in comparison to the winning streaks of UCLA’s men’s basketball teams or the Connecticut women’s basketball team to go five years without the sting of a conference loss is incredible, and something that will probably never be seen again.
And Harvard ended it.
Today Ball State takes on Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference foe No. 6 Ohio State. And while the Cardinals don’t have a five-year streak to break, they are in need of some sort of galvanization treatment.
They need not look any farther than the Harvard/Penn State match.
Harvard and Ball State are eerily similar. Harvard touts a 7-2 record, Ball State an 8-2. And up until Friday both got their wins from beating up on weaker teams.
Harvard got its marquee victory, something the Cardinals desperately need.
After starting the season 8-0, and as the nation’s last unbeaten team, Ball State has dropped its last two matches to conference opponents, and finds itself on the brink of mediocrity.
Coach Joel Walton has said after both losses that he is disappointed with the competitive nature of his team, and that is looking for not just one player, but everyone to elevate their game.
And they need to quickly. Starting today the Cardinals go into a brutal road trip, next week playing last year’s conference champion No. 14 Lewis and then Loyola-Chicago who has also received votes to be ranked and is third in the MIVA.
All of those matches look to be trouble for Ball State, and an 8-5 (2-5) record going into the second half of the season on a five game losing streak is not enviable.
It will be key for the Cardinals to produce a cohesive, team-effort to defeat a rank team, both of which the Cardinals have yet to do this year.
Walton has said all year that his team can be as good as they want to be, and with the amount of parity in the MIVA have a chance to compete for their first conference title since 2002. And as Harvard showed Ball State Friday, anything can happen.
