In a match that was designed to be more fun than serious, men'svolleyball head coach Joel Walton was pleased with the progress histeam made in a win against Ball State alumni Saturday.
"We played pretty well," Walton said. "We were able to controlthe majority of the first three games."
The Cardinals won four of the five games played against thealumni. They won the first three 30-24, 30-28, 30-21, officiallywinning the match. Because Walton wanted to give the alumni as muchplaying time as possible, he said, the two played two moregames.
The alumni won the fourth game 30-21, and the varsity won thefifth game 15-11, which was cut short because of time constraints.Walton said it was good from an alumni standpoint that the teamwon.
"The alumni want to win, but if they do, they feel like the(current varsity) team isn't that good," Walton said. "By (thevarsity) winning (they) instilled the fact into our alumni that wehave a good group of players. It gave them respect for us."
One positive that came from the match, Walton said, was thatquestions of who will start at the middle attacker position arestarting to be answered. Sophomore Zoran Grobavoc had 11 points andplayed well at the position.
"Zoran put himself in front of the others," Walton said. "AndrewBraley also played well. We're still not 100% certain (who willstart), but some have started to separate themselves from the rest(at the middle position)."
One of the reasons Walton scheduled the alumni match for fall,instead of the spring, was to prepare his young players for theseason. While he said the team is coming along well, Walton saidthere are still some things for them to work on.
"We need to work on our blocking and our offense," Walton said."We're also not hitting at the percentage we'd like to hit."
The Cardinals' goal in every match is to hit over .300. They hit.243 against the alumni, who Walton said they should have noproblem hitting over .300.
Walton added that he is looking for a server and a defensiveplayer to come in and help the team in certain situations.
"One more weekend (of preseason play) is really going to helpestablish who our starting nucleus is and also who's going to be inbackup roles."
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