One of the men's volleyball team's weak points this season, according to head coach Joel Walton, has been passing. The Cardinals' deficiency finally hurt them Friday in a 3-1 loss to No. 3 Hawaii.
The loss was No. 10 Ball State's (6-2) second of the season and second in as many nights to Hawaii.
Walton said the team struggled with Warrior Maulia LaBarre's jump-float serve. In volleyball, most servers either jump and hit the ball fast and hard across the net, or don't jump and lob, or float, the ball softly to the opponent.
LaBarre took a running approach to the net, jumped, then floated the ball to the Cardinals. It was an approach BSU hadn't seen before. The Cardinals also struggled to return LaBarre's serve Thursday, in their 3-0 loss to the Warriors.
"The server that hurt us the first night, LaBarre, hurt us the second night," Walton said. "He served us right off the court.
"A float serve really shouldn't be that tough (to handle), but it almost became a mental block for us."
Hawaii had four aces in the match to Ball State's one. When the Warriors didn't serve an ace, Walton said his team still struggled passing the ball.
The Cardinals' offense struggled all night. BSU won the first game, 30-27, but hit .192. The Cardinals goal is to hit .300.
Ball State had attack percentages of .182 and .250 in losing games two and three. The Cardinals finished the night hitting minus-.087 in game four. A volleyball team gets a negative attack percentage by making more errors than kills.
Freshman outside attacker Nick Meyer led the Cardinals with 16 kills and their only ace, but hit -.026. Senior outside attacker Jary Delgado had 10 kills but hit .125.
One of the bright spots for the Cardinals, Walton said, was the play of Hawaii-native Andrew Braley. The junior middle attacker had 8 kills and 1.5 blocks with a .353 attack percentage.
"Braley probably played above his level more than anyone else," Walton said.
The Cardinals return from Hawaii with two losses after heading to the island undefeated. Walton said, however, that the losses were learning experiences.
"We knew (the two matches with Hawaii) were going to be a measuring stick," Walton said. "We learned we still have a lot of things to improve if we're going to play with the best teams in the nation. We need to serve a little tougher, pass more consistently, and we need a little more punch in our offense."
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