After the men's volleyball team upset No. 9 Penn State on Friday, head coach Joel Walton called the Cardinals' serving "ridiculously good."
The upset kept No. 13 Ball State undefeated at 4-0 and should move the Cardinals into the Top 10 of the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches' Association poll.
Serving away from the Nittany Lions' powerful middle attackers was part of the Cardinals' game plan that allowed them to beat Penn State in straight sets 30-26, 30-19, 30-26.
"We served that way to keep (Penn State's middle attackers) out of their offense," Walton said. "We forced them to pass to their outside attackers."
In the victory, Ball State served 11 aces against seven service errors. Walton called that ridiculous because he said a ratio of one ace to two errors is considered good.
Penn State's middle attackers are two of the few players on the team that have starting experience. The Cardinals purposely served to the inexperienced Nittany Lions to throw them off their game.
"We took advantage of Penn State being a young team," Walton said. "Two of their three prominent passers struggled with consistency."
Five of the Cardinals' 11 aces came from 6-8 outside attacker Nick Meyer. Meyer, a freshman, led the team in kills the first three games but didn't hit well Friday. He had three kills and hit .000, but Walton said he made up for it with his serving.
"Nick did a good job of putting teams at a disadvantage with his serve," Walton said. "It's because he has such a high standing reach. He's almost serving down to the other side."
Meyer has a standing reach of 8-11. Walton said he has only seen one other with a reach that high in his 13 years at Ball State.
Senior Jary Delgado led the Cardinals with 11 kills, hitting .391. Delgado's playing time was limited in the team's last match because of tendinitis in his knee.
The Cardinals hit .253 for the match, which is less than the team goal of .300. Walton said that no one had a spectacular overall performance; it was a team effort that led the Cardinals to the upset victory.
"Because everyone contributed something, even though our offense wasn't performing as well as we'd like it to, we controlled Penn State," Walton said.
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