Momentum would not appear to be a factor in this weekend's C&C Services Invitational at Arkansas, as all four teams have lost their previous match.
Ball State has lost four straight and will face No. 9 Illinois (6-1) on Friday. The Cardinals will then face Arkansas (1-5), who has lost four straight, and Houston (1-7), who has lost seven straight, on Saturday.
"There's got to be some frustrated teams... some hungry teams, and we're one of them," head coach Randy Litchfield said. "We've lost four in a row and that makes me pretty hungry."
While the team is dealing with frustrations, Litchfield would much rather be doing that now than late in the season.
"This part of September you find out where your weaknesses are and you really go to work on those," Litchfield said. "We're in the midst of some serious problem solving.
"I think it's exactly what we should be doing now."
Earlier this week before practice, senior Stephanie Keller told the team that it shouldn't lose sight of the positive things that have happened during the team's skid.
"We worked really hard and we improved in certain areas," Keller said. "We have a ways to go, we haven't even started the MAC season yet."
Ball State has several positives heading into the weekend, one being that it's out-blocking opponents. The Cardinals are averaging 2.92 blocks per game, which ranks 30th in the country, while opponents are averaging 2.52.
Leading the team in blocking is junior Rachel Refenes, who ranks 24th in the nation with 1.61 per game.
The Cards also ranks 11th in the country with 19.61 digs per game, but their opponents are out-digging them with an average of 21.26 per game.
To start the weekend, the Cardinals take on an Illinois team that broke USC's 52-match winning streak, but then was defeated by Loyola-Chicago.
"I was hoping maybe we'd catch a soft team following their Southern Cal win," Litchfield said. "I got a feeling we're going to catch an angry team now; that's just another test we have."
On Saturday the Cardinals face two teams that had wins on opening weekend, but have not won since. Houston's lone win came against a Maryland team that defeated Ball State last weekend in four sets, and Arkansas beat Pacific.
Keller said that since the team was close to getting some wins last weekend that it should give the team hope for this weekend.
"I think we're going to play with them," she said, " and hopefully this weekend, finishing games is going to look different and we're going to come out with some wins. "
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