Although the men's volleyball team has the number two seed in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament, head coach Joel Walton knows he can't look past Findlay in Saturday's first round.
Ball State (20-8, 12-4 MIVA) beat the Oilers twice this season, including a 3-0 victory Saturday in the final regular season match. In fact, the Cardinals have never lost to Findlay (15-15, 4-12 MIVA), winning all eight of the matches between the schools.
Still, Walton said, anything can happen in the MIVA tournament.
"It's tournament time," Walton said. "I'm not looking to experiment or bring different players in. We're just going to put together a game plan that is as aggressive as possible."
Walton said he doesn't want his team looking ahead to a possible second-round matchup with the three seed, Loyola. In order to avoid overlooking Findlay, Walton has given his team certain areas to concentrate on in Saturday's home match.
"The more I talk about (not looking past Findlay), the more the guys are going to think about it," Walton said. "We have some specific goals to attain to give us things to focus on."
The Cardinals see the first round as their last chance to fine tune their lineup before they head to Ohio State for the MIVA semifinals. Walton said he is happy with the group that has started the second half of the season and what it has done.
Junior Andrew Braley will start at one middle attacker position. Walton had started sophomore Scott Bushong in Braley's place the previous two matches. The Cardinals will also go with freshman Patrick Durban at outside attacker instead of freshman Nick Meyer, who started Friday at Ohio State.
"Durban gives us a good blocker on the left side," Walton said. "In the last match at Findlay, he was able to absolutely disrupt them."
Durban faced one of Findlay's best attackers in Jeff Overfield in both Findlay matches this season. In the first, Durban held Overfield to a .079 hitting percentage. In Saturday's match, Overfield hit -.028.
Walton said any of the top five teams in the MIVA could win the tournament. He said the team that comes prepared and plays the best three-match stretch is going to be the conference champion. He just hopes his team remembers that come Saturday.
"The biggest challenge is going to be understanding what's at stake and being ready to go from the start of the match," Walton said.
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