After completing a sweep of defending national champion and No.1 Hawaii Jan. 31, No.10 Ball State (5-1, 0-0 MIVA) suffered its first loss of the season in a 3-2 five-set match against No.9 BYU (5-2, 0-0 MPSF) Feb. 4
The Cougars held a nine-point lead in the first set, but the Cardinals came back to win 32-30 after an attacking error from BYU outside hitter Davidel Gardini. Ball State continued its momentum by winning the second set 25-20. However, the Cougars won the next three sets.
In their first road contest of the year, head coach Donan Cruz said the Cardinals understood the challenge of competing in the atmosphere.
“We just knew we were coming into a pretty hostile environment, in a place that we knew we were going to get challenged and pushed," Cruz said. “Obviously, we saw a five-set match against a really good team, and they played really well."
Senior outside attacker Kaleb Jenness led Ball State with 24 kills. Freshman outside hitter Vanis Buckholz and sophomore opposite Dyer Ball totaled 11 kills each.
Cruz said another challenging aspect of playing in a different environment was the elevation, but thought it didn't impact the outcome.
“We've been out in Provo since Wednesday and [we’ve] just been trying to acclimate [to] a little different elevation with how the ball moves, but [it was] nothing different," Cruz said.
Graduate student libero Colin Ensalaco led the Cardinals with 12 digs while senior middle blocker Felix Egharevba finished with a team-high six blocks. Cruz said Ball State will learn from this loss and be prepared mentally and physically for the second match of the series.
“I think the group is realistic and knows that the opportunity to win is [an] equal opportunity to lose and we're not going to let the loss get the best of us,” Cruz said. “We're going to have to turn the page and kind of shift focus into tomorrow. Really, we just need to get some rest.”
Although they lost, Cruz looks towards the future and believes the Cardinals are skilled enough to produce a better performance against the Cougars.
“The way we look at it is, we didn't play our best volleyball and we [still] pushed them to five and we were even up 2-0," Cruz said. “We just know we're capable of a lot more.”
Ball State returns for the second match of the series Feb. 5 against BYU. First set is 9 p.m.
Contact Derran Cobb with comments at derran.cobb@bsu.edu or on Twitter @Derran_cobb.
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