The men's volleyball team will shoot for the perfect half when it hosts Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association opponent Loyola-Chicago tonight at 7.
By defeating No. 11 Loyola (9-3 overall, 4-1 MIVA), No. 8 Ball State could claim a perfect record over the first half of its conference season and head coach Joel Walton said doing so would give the Cardinals a swing of momentum in the right direction.
Ball State (12-1, 7-0) will bring its season-high seven-match winning streak back to Worthen Arena against Loyola in what Walton calls a "big, important game."
"(With) this match, we can put a little bit of distance between us and Loyola by beating them," Walton said.
Loyola is tied for second in the conference standings with its single loss.
Walton said a win against Loyola is also important because of the difficulty of any team to defeat Loyola at home. He says that, over the past years, Loyola has been nearly unstoppable at home while finding the road a struggle.
"I feel it's important for us to win at home since their gym is so hard to play in," Walton said. "I'd like to think we're going to keep rolling and that playing in their gym is not going to be a problem. But we'd be fooling ourselves to think that."
Although Ball State has one of the best records in the nation, Walton has continuously stressed the importance of improving each aspect of the team's play. One issue that has been season-long for the Cards is serving. Walton talked about changes they would make to toughen up their serving game.
"We are making a few adjustments in our serving strategy," Walton said. "Paul Fasshauer is going to serve float serves for the next few matches. (By) keeping Paul down, it will give us a little more diversity in the serves we send our opponents."
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, middle attacker Matthew Denmark injured his ankle in the midst of last Saturday's win over Ohio State. Walton says there is coloration and swelling in his ankle. The team is taking his injury with caution and not trying to rush him back too early.
Amitai Sasson, who replaced Denmark for the remainder of that match, will share the spot with freshman Andrew Braley.
Ball State will also play the New Jersey Institute of Technology Saturday at 7 p.m. at Worthen Arena.
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