The Mid-American Conference Women's Volleyball Tournament startsup tonight at campus sights all over the Midwest. In first-roundaction, No. 4 seeded Ball State welcomes No. 13 Miami (Ohio) toWorthen Arena for a 7 p.m. showdown.
While the team needs little incentive to be excited, the factthat its first opponent is archrival Miami just adds fuel to thefire.
Head coach Randy Litchfield said a number of factors play intothe Cardinals/RedHawks rivalry.
"You look at geography first," he said. "Then both Carolyn(Condit, Miami's head coach) and I have been at it for many yearsnow. I think the players over the years have had a lot of awarenessof each other."
Miami is also one of only three MAC teams to ever defeat BallState in Worthen Arena, though that stellar homecourt advantage hasdiminished somewhat this year.
"Usually homecourt advantage is a great big factor for us,"Litchfield said. "This year I think it is a slight advantage and nomore than that."
In the teams' only meeting during the regular season, Ball Stateeasily handled Miami to the tune of a 3-0 victory. That was over amonth ago, though, and Litchfield said he knows that the RedHawkshave stepped up their game greatly since then.
"They have adapted, which is evidenced by a real good weekendlast weekend," Litchfield said. "They beat both Eastern Michiganand Akron, who are both upper-division teams. I wish I know exactlywhat has changed. All we know is they have switched to a one-setteroffense."
The tournament atmosphere also usually changes the way teamsapproach matches, Litchfield said.
"It is really such a desperate situation for both teams," hesaid. "I wish we hadn't won so easily the first time, actually,because I don't think it will be that way this time."
While getting a bye by being one of the league's top three teamswould have been nice, Litchfield said he and his team welcome theMiami match as a chance to get accustomed to postseason play.
"This time of year, playing just seems like the natural thing todo," Litchfield said. "How much better we can get in practice isdebatable.
"I think a young team can be benefited by playing in an earlyround like this. It helps them to get acclimated to this type ofplay. It is going to be a wild weekend with eight teams in the gym.It will be quite an atmosphere. We can get our feet wet with thismatch."
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