Locked in a four-way tie atop the conference standings, men's volleyball head coach Joel Walton knows the Cardinals have to fight to win each of their final four matches.
The fight begins tonight at home against Milwaukee School of Engineering (0-21), a non-conference opponent. The No. 12 Cardinals (17-7, 10-3 MIVA) then travel to Quincy (7-14, 3-10 MIVA) on Saturday for a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association matchup.
Despite the opponents' poor records, Walton said his team can't overlook Milwaukee or Quincy.
"Our biggest challenge is staying focused on whatever opponent we play that night and making sure we're ready to do the things necessary to win," Walton said. "If we're not ready, our margins of separation between those teams isn't great enough that we can play a horrible match and get away with it."
Walton said he hopes that this weekend will allow his team to improve in serving and all-around offense before the end of the regular season. He also wants to see the Cardinals get back to playing how they were when they were undefeated in league play, before they lost four of five matches March 9-20.
"I still feel like we're a little bit wounded," Walton said. "We're not as confident yet as we're going to need to be as we go into the last weekend of play. We want to get back into a mode where we're looking ahead. If we have a lead, we're looking to extend it. We need to stop putting errors back to back and letting things compound."
Tonight is senior night for Ball State. It is the final home game of the regular season for the four Cardinal seniors: Kenny Cook, Jary Delgado, Amitai Sasson and Keith Schunzel. Walton said he wants the players to get a fond farewell, but he also wants to rest them against the winless Raiders.
Cook, who has only played in four games this season, will start tonight. Walton said he doesn't plan on using Delgado, who the team has relied heavily on lately, and middle attacker Zoran Grabovac, who has struggled with tendinitis in his knees. He wants to give the two rest before the final weekend of the season.
"We're going to give a couple of the guys in our supporting staff opportunities to get out on the court and play," Walton said.
Although the Cardinals must win to stay tied for first place in the MIVA, Walton said this weekend is building up to next weekend, when the seedings for the conference tournament will be finalized.
"The nice thing about this week is that we get to combine it with next week to prepare for the Ohio State match," Walton said. "We have to continue to look at matches one at a time. The Quincy match on the road isn't going to be an easy match, but of our remaining three, the Ohio State one is going to be the toughest."
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