For the first time all year, possibly ever, the men's volleyball team is heading into a match tonight against a team head coach Joel Walton knows almost nothing about.
The eighth-ranked Cardinals face Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, an Division II school. Walton doesn't know much about the team because there aren't any scouting tapes, and the school doesn't play in any of the three national conferences.
Walton doesn't know much about the team, but he has experience with Puerot Rican players. Senior outside attacker Jary Delgado, from Carolina, Puerto Rico, is in his fourth year with the Cardinals. Luis Castera, who is also Puerto Rican, plays for Ball State, but was ruled academically ineligible in January.
Judging from his experience with Puerto Ricans, Walton said players from the island aren't very tall, but are very athletic and have good ball control.
"The scariest thing about this team is if they walk in the gym and they've got six Jary Delgados," Walton said.
Delgado said he knows three of Mayaguez's players because he played against them in high school. Other than that, all he knows is that the team is one of the best in Puerto Rico.
Though Delgado is treating the match just like any other to avoid putting pressure on himself, he said he would like to play well in front of his fellow Puerto Ricans.
"I'd like to show them how I'm doing over here," Delgado said. "I'd like to show them that our conference here is hard. I'd like to show them how I've been playing lately."
Once conference play started Feb. 13, Delgado's numbers have boomed. He leads the Cardinals in total kills in Midwestern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matches and is fifth in the MIVA in kills in conference matches.
But there are still areas he and the team need to improve in this weekend, he said.
"Our serving has struggled lately," Delgado said. "One day I serve pretty good, pretty consistent. The next day I'll have four or five misses."
Walton said playing an unknown school will test his team. Tonight's match versus Mayaguez will show him how the Cardinals can play when focusing on themselves, not what the other team can do.
"My number one goal is to see how well our team adapts without any kind of scouting report," Walton said. "I want to see how well we can figure out where Mayaguez's strengths are, where their weaknesses are and then take advantage of those."
Ball State will face Mayaguez without starting middle attacker Zoran Grabovac. Grabovac had his best game of the season Friday against Ohio State, killing 15 balls and hitting .682. But he will be forced to sit out tonight's match with tendonitis in his right knee.
Grabovac tore the ACL in his left knee in Fall 2002 for the second time. He hasn't had surgery on the knee, but wears a brace. Because of the injury, Grabovac favors his right knee, putting extra pressure and force on it, causing it to swell.
Grabovac leads the MIVA in hitting percentage in conference games at .500
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