Despite the Cardinals losing four of its last five matches, men's volleyball head coach Joel Walton is optimistic about Friday's battle for first place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.
After starting their conference season 6-0, the No. 12 Cardinals (14-6, 7-2 MIVA) dropped consecutive league matches to Lewis and Loyola to slip a game behind IPFW (10-6, 8-1 MIVA). A loss at George Mason on Friday caused head coach Joel Walton to doubt the effectiveness of his starting lineup.
Walton acted quickly and altered the lineup for the next night's match at No. 8 Penn State. Walton moved senior Amitai Sasson from libero to outside attacker and moved sophomore outside attacker Evan Berg to libero. He also moved freshman outside attacker Nick Meyer, who has struggled recently, Walton said, from the right side to the left.
"The changes move some players around into what I think can be strengths," Walton said. "Right now I see Evan as our best passer."
The moves should liven up an offense that had gone stale in the team's string of losses, Walton said. The Cardinals lost what Walton called a heart-breaker at Penn State, 3-2, but the coach said he was impressed with the team's offense.
Friday's contest will be a rematch of Ball State's 3-0 trouncing of IPFW in Fort Wayne Feb. 20. The match was the Mastadon's sole conference loss this season.
"They kicked our butts," IPFW head coach Arnie Ball said.
Both Ball and Walton said the match is important because the MIVA season is winding down. If the Cardinals win, they will be tied with IPFW for first place, but will hold the tie-breaker over the Mastadons because they would have won both contests. If the Mastadons win, they will open up a two-game lead in the conference with seven games left.
"This is a chance for us, after playing pretty average for a couple of weeks, to get back on track and win an important match," Walton said. "It would be nice to be in first place as opposed to being a game or so down and relying on someone else to do your work for you."
Ball said consistency is the key for his team to win Friday and for the rest of the season.
"The Ball State match is our most important match right now," Ball said. "When you're at that point in the season where you're playing consistently, teams lose games by making too many mistakes. Whomever is cutting down on their mistakes at the end of the year is going to have the best opportunity to win the conference."
The Cardinals also face Mercyhurst (11-8, 56 MIVA) at home Sunday. When the two played Feb. 21, Mercyhurst won the first game and led the Cardinals late in the second before Ball Sate put the Lakers away in four games.
This weekend, Walton said, he'd like the Cardinals to set more balls to senior outside attacker Jary Delgado, who knocked in a career-high 31 kills against Penn State. Delgado leads the Cardinals in kills, kills per game and points this season.
Walton said he wants Delgado to be Ball State's main offensive weapon, but someone else needs to step up and help him.
"I think our offense and any offense is better if you distribute the ball, if there's not just one horse," Walton said. "I'd like to see Jary, if we need him on a given night, step up. But I'd also like to see (others) get back to the point where, if defenses start keying on Jary, those guys can put the ball away and get kills."**2?"+â-¦>+â-¦>+â-ó+â-ó>+â-£+â-à+â-£>--$$6I?<$+â-û>...*2CNh+â-û&-¦+â-í-ú\wJmvolley 3.25DNEditorial**2+â-«<+â-ä+*2AUDT
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
