Sometimes a slight change is all it takes to get a team back in winning ways.
Heading into Friday's home match against IPFW, the men's volleyball team had lost four of its past five matches. After Ball State struggled in game one against the Mastadons, head coach Joel Walton replaced freshman outside attacker Nick Meyer with freshman Patrick Durban.
Durban responded with 17 kills to help No. 12 Ball State beat No. 10 IPFW in five games and reclaim a tie first place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
"We thought all year long that at some point in time Pat was going to turn into a great player for our program," Walton said. "Tonight happened to be a great big step in that direction."
The Cardinals (16-6, 9-2 MIVA) used the momentum from Friday's emotional victory to roll past Mercyhurst (11-10, 5-8 MIVA) at home Sunday, 3-0. With the pair of victories, Ball State is tied with IPFW (11-7, 9-2 MIVA) atop the conference. The Cardinals hold the tie-breaker, however, because they beat the Mastadons in both matches this season.
Although the Cardinals hit .324 and lost by a narrow 30-28 margin in the first game against the IPFW, Walton said he wasn't happy with the way his team was playing.
Meyer had just one kill and hit -.400 in the game. While Meyer led the team in kills through the first 12 matches of the season, his hitting percentage has dropped to .066 over the past eight matches. After Meyer's poor start Friday, Walton started Durbin in game two.
"Blocking was a really big key," Walton said. "There were some things blocking-wise that I wanted to change. Pat came in and did a better job blocking and started to do some good things attacking."
The Cardinals won game two on the strength of senior outside attacker Jary Delgado's 10 kills. Ball State's offense stalled again in game three, however, as the Cardinals hit .133 in a 30-22 loss. Walton said the team made some changes mentally after the third game that propelled them to victory.
"We just got to a point in game three that some of the frustrations we've had recently just boiled over," Walton said. "We just needed to relax a little bit and start executing, and we got back into the match."
Ball State dominated IPFW in game four, winning 30-18 and allowing the Mastadons to hit just .194. Game five, which is played to 15 points and one team must win by two, went back and forth. The lead changed hands nine times with neither team getting ahead by more than two points.
In the end, it was Delgado who slammed the Cardinals' final four kills, including a powerful blast down the middle no IPFW defender could touch that gave Ball State the final 21-19 advantage.
"We've been struggling the past few weeks, and I told myself I was going to step up," Delgado said. "You have your doubts, but I knew the whole team was going to step up in the end, so we did."
Delgado killed 27 balls and hit .404 in the match, just one game after hammering a career-high 31 kills March 20 at Penn State. Durbin's 17 kills Friday were a career-high.
At Penn State, Walton moved senior Amitai Sasson from libero to outside attacker. He responded with a career-high 20 kills. Against IPFW, Sasson dropped 18 kills. After 11 more kills in the victory over Mercyhurst, he said he feels more comfortable in his new position.
"I've always felt like (outside attacker) is more my natural spot," Sasson said. "I feel like I can contribute to the team in different ways, and right now, it's working."
Walton said he hopes the Cardinals' play over the weekend will give them the momentum they need to win their final six matches and finish in first place of the MIVA.
"The sooner this team realizes that we have the talent that it takes and they start to believe in themselves and they start to have confidence again in their teammates, we're going to get back to playing some really good volleyball," he said.
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