The Ball State men's volleyball team rode its plane home in high spirits today.
After being swept twice to open its West Coast trip this weekend, Ball State managed to secure a 3-2 (21-25, 29-27, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12) win over Grand Canyon to avoid falling behind its Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association rivals.
Ball State improved to 11-7 overall and 3-4 in the MIVA, keeping pace with Loyola (3-3) and IPFW (2-2) in the race for seeding in the MIVA Tournament in late April.
Grand Canyon (12-9, 3-1) was dealt its first conference loss of the season after defeating Quincy twice and Ball State once.
Junior Dan Wichmann made a surprising start at setter for Ball State in the match, playing ahead of Graham McIlvaine, who had started ever match this season up until Saturday.
Wichmann finished with 48 assists, six digs and six blocks in his first start since March 18, 2011.
Ball State's offense didn't take many steps forward with Wichmann at the helm, though. The team finished with a .185 attack percentage as three players hit negatively.
Freshman outside attacker Matt Sutherland was an outlier to that total. He hit .444 off a career-high nine kills and 18 attacks in one of his best matches at Ball State.
Junior right-side hitter Greg Herceg (16) and sophomore middle attacker Matt Leske (11) also set their own career-highs in kills in the match.
Ball State found a winning formula in beating Grand Canyon by holding its opponent to a .165 attack percentage. The Cardinals also played more error-free, hitting only 13 service errors in five sets on Saturday after hitting 15 in three sets on Friday.
Ball State will return to action next Sunday in what could be its final home match of the season, taking on No. 9 Ohio State at 6 p.m. Jeff Aucoin, the team's only senior, will be honored for Senior Night.
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