It’s hard to make a game plan for an opponent when there’s nothing to see.
That’s the problem for Joel Walton, the Ball State men’s volleyball head coach. With an upcoming match against Sacred Heart on Saturday, he would normally spend hours in his office, pouring over details in game film. He would watch opponents’ tendencies and weak spots, looking to see where his team could take advantage to get a win.
He can’t do that because Sacred Heart hasn’t played a game this season.
“It’s been pretty difficult considering they don’t actually play until Friday night,” Walton said. “We’ll get a little information then and do our best to use that.”
Walton named junior outside attacker Enzo Mackenzie and senior setter Jason Kinney from Sacred Heart as two players his team will have to watch based on previous experiences playing them. In particular, Kinney plays a dangerous role because he has seen time as a middle and left side attacker.
Ball State knocked off Sacred Heart last season 3-1 when Kinney was the main offensive weapon. He took 40 swings at the ball and finished with 16 kills. His well-rounded game could cause problems for Ball State’s players if they aren’t sure where to expect him.
“The trickiest parts about that team this year is figuring out their personnel package, along with trying to help our guys figure out how to be successful against those players,” Walton said.
Regardless of who’s across the net, Walton highlighted serves as one of the biggest problems he wants cleared up before Saturday’s match.
Against UC Irvine, Ball State landed 76.4 percent of its serves, which he said is a number that puts the team in a hole without forcing the opposing team to touch the volleyball. Senior outside attacker Urim Demirovski struggled the most by missing four times, although the three misses from freshman outside attacker Brendan Surane didn’t look much better.
“We’ve spent a lot of time this week going over the thought process of serving, the technique and giving our guys the number of serving reps they need to become comfortable,” Walton said.
Although Sacred Heart doesn’t have the offensive firepower that UC Irvine had, digging into a hole because of serving errors isn’t desirable for Walton. He said this is partly because players are having trouble meshing at practice.
Although there’s individual talent, the players aren’t in sync with each other, leading to lost points and missed opportunities.
Against UC Irvine, a pass went haywire and drifted toward the left. Three Ball State players surrounded it. The ball dropped to the floor, and the teammates looked at each other puzzled as to who was supposed to take the ball.
Those mistakes can lead to losses if enough occur.
Walton doesn’t need game film to see that.
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