Losing was not the way the men's volleyball team wanted to spend its Spring Break. Facing three nationally respected programs, No. 8 Ball State could not put together a road win in four tries and fell to 14-5 overall.
The Cardinals started their battle against George Mason, an unranked team that head coach Joel Walton said "technically would be ranked 16th in the AVCA/Coaches Poll." Both teams had season-high winning streaks on the line, George Mason (10-3) with eight and Ball State with nine.
There was only one sub-.300 game, by George Mason. Although Ball State usually keeps distance between itself and opposing teams in that category, it allowed George Mason to hit .324. The Cards' loss came despite hitting .339.
Next, Ball State went up against No. 4 Penn State (14-2), which entered the game with an 8-0 home record. In the closest match of the break, Ball State took two of the first three games. Ball State's offense was on point, getting 51 kills off a .392 hitting percentage. It could not, however, sustain that level of play in crunch time as it hit .000 in the fifth and deciding game.
To end the break, the Cards faced the defending national champions, No. 5 Brigham Young, twice. The first match ended up with the Cards on the losing end of a sweep for the first time - 28-30, 26-30, 28-30.
The following day, the two teams met again. Brigham Young again came out victorious.
According to Walton, the team did not accomplish any of the goals it tried to accomplish over Spring Break. He said , however that he did not believe the entire trip was a waste, despite the disappointing results.
"It's better that we lose these matches now so that we see there are some things that we need to work on, that way we have the motivation to get into practice and keep working to improve," he said.
"There is still plenty of time for us to make changes so that we are ready when we get down to the latter stages of our season and playing the matches that matter the most."
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