David Polaski is a junior journalism and telecommunications major and writes ‘Dave’s Digs’ for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the paper. Write to David at dmpolaski@bsu.edu
Ball State has found its young anchor four matches into the season, but the offense will collapse unless veterans step up to balance the attack.
Sophomore Marcin Niemczewski leads the Ball State men’s volleyball team by a pretty wide margin with 45 kills and 96 attacks.
A sophomore, whose experience amounted to just five sets until this season, shouldn’t be accountable for carrying the offense.
Though Niemczewski’s play is impressive, Ball State’s lack of balance is terrifying. No veteran has stepped up to take control, which has resulted in a 1-3 record early on.
Niemczewski is being asked to do too much, too early. Already this season, he accounts for 28.7 percent of the offense.
They can’t afford to rely on Niemczewski to be the star player on offense. His lack of experience makes him a question mark until he receives more playing time. Young, inexperienced players are prone to drastic swings in the quality of their play, having a couple of great matches followed by a few poor ones.
Before the season began, Walton spoke about how junior Shane Witmer and seniors Matt Leske and Kevin Owens could become the main threats in the offense to replace graduation losses.
Yet none of them have become consistent threats—not enough to make defenses key in on them during most points. Instead, none of them are averaging more than a paltry 1.57 kills per set.
That doesn’t inspire much fear.
So far this season, Ball State has faced two teams ranked in the top 12. UC Irvine was No. 1 and Penn State is No. 12. The difficulty of opponents makes the offensive struggles more understandable, but not inexcusable.
Owens was named a preseason All-American and Leske was named a First-Team All-MIVA choice. Combined, they still have fewer kills than Niemczewski.
Second in kills is fifth-year senior Larry Wrather with 26. In December, Walton said he expected Wrather to play a complementary role throughout the season. He expected him to see more time at libero while carrying less of a load on offense.
Instead, he’s becoming a significant part of the offense, tying for first in kills against Penn State. Walton may want him to play more libero, but can’t afford to remove him from offense because of the production that would be lost.
At the same time, Wrather’s body may not be up to the challenge. He’s coming off a major shoulder injury and spent all of the previous season recovering. Relying on him too much could result in another injury and with the current state of the offense, that’s not something they can afford.
If Ball State wants the offense to ignite, as its currently hitting just .205, the veterans need to step up and take pressure off Niemczewski and Wrather. The diversity will prevent defenses from honing in on a few specific players, keeping Wrather fresh and not overwhelming Niemczewski.
Strong contributions from Owens, Leske, Witmer and others could propel Ball State toward a successful MIVA season. There’s still time to get the offense figured out, considering the season just began weeks ago.
But if they don’t, it’ll be a rough season.
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