The Cards first warmed up to a new pregame tape that featuredsuch classics as "Desperado" by The Eagles and "Stairway to Heaven"by Led Zeppelin. Then, the Ball State women's volleyball team(11-12, 5-5 Mid-American Conference) climbed its own stairway to anonconference 3-1 victory against the Raiders of Wright State(13-11) Tuesday night.
The warmup tape is just one part of head coach RandyLitchfield's new approach to motivating the team: adversity.
Litchfield also included in his scheme a rigorous practiceyesterday, in which he attempted to push his players beyond theirlimits.
"We are really buckling all year long under adverse situations,"he said. "Whether it be tough crowds or opponents playingoff-the-charts volleyball against, we are not standing up to thechallenge. I just felt like it was time for this team to learn todeal with me some. I can be tougher than anybody. I can be tougherthan any crowd or any team. What I did to us in practice yesterdaywas brutal, not physically, but mentally, and the players leftpractice enjoying it."
The Cardinals took a little while to get going, though. Theydropped the first game of the match by a score of 30-27. Whatimpressed Litchfield most about that early setback was not how wellWright State played, but rather how Ball State responded.
"I was really happy to see that ... we didn't play horrible and... there was no panic coming out of it," he said. "That'ssomething we've been doing when we've played subpar volleyball iswe've panicked and we've gotten worse. Tonight, we didn't panic,and it got better to ultimately lead to a win."
After winning game two 30-23, Litchfield decided it was time forthe Cards to face another obstacle after halftime, so he tinkeredwith the lineup and inserted freshman outside attacker HeatherBurleson, who had only seen limited action this season.
"Screwing with lineups after you have won a game is the cardinalsin of coaching, and I committed it," Litchfield said. "The teamovercame that. I want the team to get used to things like that. Ifthey have to get used to me too, so be it."
Sophomore outside attacker Sarah Obras, who finished with amatch-high 22 kills, applauded Litchfield's decision to shakethings up.
"I thought it was definitely a good move on his part becausewe've also been working in practice on finding ways to win," shesaid. "He took people out of their element a little bit."
The adversity hardly stopped there, though. Halfway through gamethree, with Ball State down 18-10, Litchfield earned a yellow cardfrom the officials for arguing calls. In hindsight, it turned outto be a good thing, according to Litchfield.
"After the card happened, I thought some breaks went our way,"he said. "It's a crapshoot. Sometimes it works; sometimes itdoesn't."
The Cardinals went on a 9-0 run after the yellow card and endedup taking the third stanza 30-26. From there, Ball State closed outthe night with a 30-27 game-four win to take the match.
The win, although a nonconference match, is of extremeimportance to the struggling Cardinals.
"There's probably not 25 people that know how important thismatch was, and I'll tell them all right now that it was big,"Litchfield said. "We came off of a collapse last weekend and gotour feet back under us on the ground."
While the team is tired after three matches in five days and atough practice on Monday, sophomore middle attacker Kristin Westhofhas no worries about the team recovering in time for a pair of MACmatches this upcoming weekend.
"I think by Saturday we'll be plenty ready to go," she said.
With home matches against Western Michigan and Akron on Saturdayand Sunday respectively, Litchfield said he feels the win overWright State is a key step to the Cardinals becoming the team theywant to be.
"We played a pretty-good volleyball team here very well," hesaid. "Going into one of our toughest weekends to date, it was realimportant that we were heading in the right direction."
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