MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Strenuous schedule forces Ball State to take precautions
By David Polaski / March 19, 2014An exhausted Matt Sutherland took a deep breath after being asked how he felt. “Tired,” he said.
An exhausted Matt Sutherland took a deep breath after being asked how he felt. “Tired,” he said.
Ball State knocked off Lees-McRae in four sets Saturday night 25-19, 25-19, 27-29, 25-3. The team finished the match with 50 kills with outside attackers Marcin Niemczewski and Matt Sutherland pacing Ball State each claiming 11 kills. Setter Graham McIlvaine finished with a team-high 25 sets, while Hiago Garchet added 13 of his own. Ball State finished with 13 team blocks; Niemczewski and Kevin Owens each with a solo block. Libero David Ryan Vander Meer led the team with 15 digs, while Shane Witmer was not far behind, contributing 13 digs. The win improves Ball State’s record to 14-5.
When the final kill fell Tuesday night, one of the loudest teams in the conference was silent. Ball State knocked off IPFW 19-25, 25-18, 25-19 and 25-23.
This season Ball State men’s volleyball head coach Joel Walton has emphasized that serving well doesn’t have to mean getting aces. When the team knocked off No.
Ball State swept King tonight, winning 25-14, 25-22 and 25-17. It’s the team’s fifth straight win and fourth straight sweep.
Ball State defeated Belmont Abby in three sets Friday night, winning 25-9, 25-14 and 25-21. Freshman outside attacker Brendan Surane finished the match with a team-high 12 kills, which was also a career-high.
Men’s volleyball players crouched on the court at Worthen Arena while coaches and other personnel dotted the sidelines or sat behind the media table. The final point of a practice game came to a close, with Shane Witmer on the losing end.
Ball State beat Mount Olive 25-15, 25-9 and 25-20. The Cardinals held the Trojans to a -.133 attack percentage, just one Trojan hit a positive number. Middle attacker Kevin Owens led the way for Ball State with eight kills on 11 attempts, finishing the night with a .727 attack percentage. Outside attackers Matt Sutherland and Shane Witmer led Ball State in digs with six each, while setter Hiago Garchet paced the team with 15 assists. It was one of Ball State’s most successful nights at the net, collecting 16 total blocks.
Fifty-five times this season, Graham McIlvaine sent an attack over the net. As the Ball State men’s volleyball team’s starting setter, it’s not his job to attack.
With Thursday and Saturday matches against two top 10 teams in the country, Ball State was hoping to make a statement. The one it made wasn’t the one it wanted. The men’s volleyball team dropped its matches against Loyola (25-19), (25-21), (20-25), (25-17) and Lewis (25-14), (25-16), (25-18). “We got our butts kicked pretty hard and I think the frustrating thing is we know we can play better than we did,” said Ball State head coach Joel Walton after the loss to Lewis.
For three sets, Ball State struggled to find answers for the Lewis onslaught. The men’s volleyball team dropped its road match against the Flyers (25-14), (25-16), (25-18). The Cardinals came out flat and maintained their low energy throughout the match, unable to compete with the Flyers on both offense and defense. Ball State head coach Joel Walton was left searching for answers. “We were really disrupted by their serve,” he said.
Ball State was overpowered early and often en route to its 3-1 loss to Loyola, whose attacks were the biggest advantage of the match. The Cardinals were resilient, but ultimately the Ramblers displayed too much firepower. Loyola’s final attack percentage was .369 on a night where the team used an array of disguises to execute their offense.
After sending a serve into the net in the first set, Ball State’s Graham McIlvaine punched the court with his fists. The frustration was a common theme throughout the night for the Ball State men’s volleyball team, falling to No.
Five things to know before Ball State faces Loyola. 1. Ball State’s Marcin Niemczewski’s performance could go a long way in effecting the outcome of Thursday’s match.
Ball State walked off the court last spring with its 13 match winning streak shattered, players wondering what went wrong. But when the Ball State men’s volleyball team hosts No.
Maybe Ball State should just stay on the bus. The Cardinals men’s volleyball team knocked off both Quincy and Lindenwood over the weekend, extending its road-winning streak to five. Over those five matches, Ball State won 15 sets, each one by an average of over five points per set. The team’s streak comes after it dropped its first two road matches, gaining experiences it has used to succeed as of late. “We were tense, uptight, and that really translated into inability to play,” Ball State head coach Joel Walton said of his team’s early-season road loss against Penn State.
During a match, the current play is the only thing on a player’s mind. That can change when the team is on a bus, traveling to or from an away game. For the second time in a week, the Ball State men’s volleyball team will be loading onto a bus and traveling to road matches, missing class in the process. For some players, keeping their grades up when they can’t be in class isn’t always easy. “It’s been rough, this year especially because I’m in anatomy,” outside attacker Matt Sutherland said.
There’s nothing left to hold back during a fifth set. Ball State has proven that recently. Over the men’s volleyball team’s last three games, two of them have gone to a fifth set. Both times, Ball State slammed the door in its opponents face. “You don’t want to be passive because it’s not a game where you approach hoping to win points or waiting to see what happens,” head coach Joel Walton said.
Nothing was going right. The Ball State men’s volleyball players’ attacks were being rejected at the net by Princeton University’s two- and three-person blocks.
Ball State came back to knock off Princeton University Saturday night after dropping the first two sets and winning in five (21-25), (19-25), (22-20), (26-24), (15-4). Cardinals outside attacker Marcin Niemczewski set a new career-high in kills with 25, adding seven digs. The offense struggled as a whole during the first two sets, hitting .000 partway through the second set. With the third set tied at 16, Ball State went on a 4-0 run spurred by kills on behalf of Niemczewski and Matt Sutherland.
