The Cardinals entered Worthen Arena on Saturday night having won two straight matches, and their play in the opening points reflected their momentum. After dropping the first point of the match, Ball State rattled off five consecutive points, which served as the foundation for a lead that it never relinquished in set one.
No. 13 Ball State’s strong start on their home court was a fitting opening, as the red and white benefited from 10 scoring runs of at least three points in their sweep (25-14, 25-16, 25-15) of Tusculum (0-3).
“In one of the timeouts, I recall saying ‘against good teams, when you make runs like that, you have to keep capitalizing,’” head coach Donan Cruz said. “I thought that the difference tonight was we actually capitalized on the runs and didn't force errors coming out of timeouts.”
In the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory against Tusculum the day before, the red and white posted their finest defensive performance of the 2024 campaign — logging season-bests in blocks (7.5) and digs (41). Ball State extended its streak of defensive success into Saturday, as it registered six total blocks and 26 digs, en route to limiting Tusculum to a .057 hitting percentage.
“All fall, we thought that a new look to our team was going to be that defense was going to feel our offense, and I think we're just kind of now seeing that,” Cruz said.
Freshman middle blocker Will Patterson — in just his second collegiate start — paced the Cardinals with a career-best four total blocks. The sizable, 6-foot-10 rookie said that he has made improvements in both his attacking and blocking skills since arriving in Muncie.
“I used to be slower in club volleyball, and I sped my swinging up a lot, so I'm getting more kills,” Patterson said. “With blocking, I’m just being more composed and disciplined.”
Ball State’s strong defensive outing was met with a successful performance from its hitters. The Cardinals offense slammed 40 kills at a .359 clip — an improvement from their .203 hitting percentage against Tusculum on Friday.
“Tonight's group really did a good job of just being ready to go,” Cruz said. “It just felt way smoother tonight.”
Sophomore outside hitter Nathan Goh and senior outside hitter Trevor Phillips shared the lead in kills, each recording 12. Goh’s notable outing was not a first for the Maryland native, as he has stepped into a larger role than he held in his freshman season — which saw him appear in just two matches.
“I love being in the games with the crowd,” Goh said. “I've got my family and friends back home supporting me, and I have my friends here supporting me.”
Saturday night marked sophomore Griffin Satterfield’s return to the starting setter position after freshmen Peter Zurawski and Lucas Macahdo held down the starting role over the last three matches. In his first appearance since the Cardinals’ matchup against BYU on January 5, Satterfield logged 32 assists, two kills and two aces.
“Griff set a pretty clean ball and ran a good offense, and that's the expectation from all three setters,” Cruz said.
Riding a three-match winning streak, the Cardinals (6-2) will return to action on Tuesday, January 16, when they host Trine (0-0) for the first time in program history. The Thunder were a late addition to the red and white’s schedule, as the in-state foe was announced as an opponent earlier this week.
“We’re going to enjoy the weekend, enjoy the time off, get back to work on Monday, and then play Trine,” Goh said.
Contact Adam Altobella with comments on X @AltobellaAdam or via email at aaltobella@bsu.edu.
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