In what was their final road stretch of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) portion of their schedule, Ball State Men’s Volleyball won both of their matches. First, the Cardinals won in straight sets (25-18, 25-21, 25-20) over McKendree on March 30, followed by a five-set (25-22, 25-19, 21-25, 17-25, 15-12) thriller against Lewis Saturday.
To start off, Ball State (16-8, 9-3 MIVA) took control over the Bearcats (6-13, 1-11 MIVA) and never slowed down. On offense, second-year outside hitter Tinaishe Ndavazocheva had a game-high 12 kills and fifth-year outside attacker Kaleb Jenness had 11 kills of his own. The Cardinals were able to maintain a .444 hitting percentage throughout the match, to McKendree’s .313 hitting percentage.
Ball State was able to control their side of the net on defense too. Fifth-year middle blocker Felix Egharevba, fourth-year setter David Flores and third-year opposite Dyer Ball combined for five blocks.
The Cardinals still committed some errors throughout the match (10) but that did not stop them from controlling the pace, and captured the first of two wins.
The second match of the weekend was a bit of redemption for Ball State. In their first MIVA contest this season on Feb. 9, the Lewis Flyers (14-12, 5-7 MIVA) took down the Cardinals in a five-set upset.
While it seemed like that may have been the case Saturday, as Ball State took the first two sets then the Flyers took the next two, to set up a fifth and final set. The Cardinals managed to prevent a second loss to Lewis.
Jenness led the way on offense with a team-high 18 kills and Ndavazocheva supplemented with 10 kills. An ace from Ndavazocheva won the game for Ball State as well.
The Cardinals are back at Worthen Arena next weekend for their final two matches of the regular season against Loyola-Chicago and Purdue Fort Wayne.
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