Ball State men’s volleyball improved its win streak to six on Feb. 12 as the 13th-ranked Cardinals (9-3, 3-0 MIVA) swept the Barton College Bulldogs (6-3, 4-2 Conference Carolinas) in three sets, 25-20, 25-17 and 25-17.
Head coach Joel Walton said he liked his team's defense.
“When you look at their team for the season, they’re hitting a pretty high percentage, and they have a couple of attackers, [Aleksa Brkovic and Vasilis Mandilaris], who were hitting over .300, and tonight we held both of those players to a negative hitting percentage,” he said.
The Cardinals put up 5.5 blocks in the second set and finished with 13 for the game. Middle attacker Alex Pia led the team in blocks with six. The Cardinals are currently sixth in the nation in blocks per set, averaging 2.58.
Offensively, outside attackers Brendan Surane and Mike Scannell each scored six kills in the first, and Scannell finished the game with a team-high 12 kills.
“It's awesome looking at the personal stats, but I look at the whole entire game," Scannell said. "I think we all do from the bench to the court."
Surane currently ranks fifth in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association conference with 104 individual kills on the season.
Scannell said keeping a good mentality has helped the team during its win streak.
“When you’re in a stretch of games like this, you got to really keep in key to take every game with confidence take every game with 100 percent aggressiveness and never let up,” Scannell said.
After a scheduling change, the Cardinals will continue their six-game home stretch, hosting No. 5 Loyola on Feb. 17 and No. 14 Lewis on Feb. 18.
