Randy Litchfield is hoping that he's been witnessing the calm before a storm this week in practice.
The Cardinals have not shown the kind of energy he would like to see before going into the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
"I've had trouble reading this team's practice mentality all year and many times it hasn't affected how we've played," the head coach said. "Our effort is a little bit of a mystery to me and hopefully it's just a calm before the storm."
No. 2 seed Ball State (19-9, 12-4) faces the seventh-seeded Northern Illinois Huskies (14-18, 8-8) on Friday at 11 a.m. in the second round of the tournament at Bowling Green's Anderson Arena. The Huskies advanced on Tuesday by defeating Toledo 3-0 (30-26, 30-26, 30-20), while the Cardinals earned a first-round bye.
"Hopefully our practice isn't going to reflect how we play, it's been kind of slow," sophomore Kelly Cochran said. "Hopefully we'll bring our game when it's really going to count."
Ball State and Northern split the regular season series, with the Cardinals getting a 3-0 victory at home and the Huskies doing the same except much more handily. The Huskies handed the Cardinals their worst loss in the school history under rally scoring with a 30-13 second-game victory.
Sophomore Stephanie Bacan said the team will definitely be looking for revenge on Friday.
"We went to their place and we didn't just get beat, they pounded us," Bacan said. "We know they're going to be ready so I think more than anything our team wants to show them that the team they played in their gym that night wasn't the real Ball State team."
While the team's attitude may be much different, its makeup will also be. The Cardinals are without junior outside attacker Sarah Obras who suffered a season ending knee injury on Nov. 10. Litchfield said the team should be forming a closer bond in the absence of Obras.
"Under adversity you've really got to be committed to each other and we haven't quite found that yet," he said. "The loss of Sarah should create a really terrific bond and a collaborative effort.
"I think we saw that (last) Friday night against Eastern Michigan, yet this week in practice we seem to be searching for it again."
Cochran, who along with sophomore Heather Burleson, will play a big part in filling Obras's role, said she thinks the team is ready to step up.
"We need to, it's definitely the time to rise up," she said. "It means more for us to definitely come out there and play our game."
Northern comes into the match on a five game winning streak and are led by senior Tara Lobdell who leads the conference with 5.78 kills per game. Litchfield said stopping her along with middle hitter Kate McCullagh will be a big key for the Cardinals, along with exploiting the Huskies' weaknesses. He said the Huskies have three rotations in which Ball State should be able to outscore them.
"You have to attack those weaknesses and we got an F- over there two weeks ago," Litchfield said.
If Ball State beats Northern on Friday, they would play at 4 p.m. on Saturday against either Bowling Green or Marshall. The Cardinals defeated both teams 3-0 earlier this season and Litchfield said the semifinal match is one place the team would not have a revenge factor. Ball State has won 24 straight matches against Bowling Green and 11 of 14 against Marshall.
While that round does not feature a revenge factor, the championship game most likely will, but Litchfield said he can't look that far ahead.
"There's revenge matches all over the place for us," Litchfield said. "It doesn't seem to make much sense to think any ahead, I think maybe Ohio has the luxury of looking ahead, we surely don't."
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