With only five games remaining in the regular season, thewomen's volleyball team begins a three-game road schedule, with twothis weekend.
Ball State (17-6, 10-1) will travel to Western Michigan (13-10,7-5) on Friday and Northern Illinois (9-18, 4-8) on Saturday. Bothmatches are against West Division foes and key for the Cardinalswho are in a race with Eastern Michigan for the West Divisioncrown.
The matches this weekend will be the first in November after theteam had a perfect 11-0 record in October. The team also went 30-3in games during the month and has won 21 games and 11 matchesstraight.
The Cardinals need two wins to clinch a first round bye in theMid-American Conference Tournament. So far this season, Ball Statehas a 6-2 record on the road, so head coach Randy Litchfield feelscomfortable this weekend.
"I think we've got enough of a read on this team now to knowthat we're a little shaper and a little more focused on the road,"Litchfield said. "We also must know that our opponent will probablyplay better on their home court."
Knowing that the Cardinals will face tougher opponents then theyhave recently has caused the team to be more focused.
"We know that it's going to be two pretty big games thisweekend, so it's kind of helped us focus this week in practice alot on the little things we struggled with last time we playedthem," senior Stacie Baldwin said.
Ball State has defeated both Western and Northern earlier in theseason. They defeated Northern in straight sets, but had to fightoff a comeback against Western and hold on for a 3-2 win.
"There's no excuse right now for not knowing teams, so the trickis who's the smartest," Litchfield said. "We'll get a real test ofthat this weekend."
This is the first of hat Litchfield said is five big matches,but he said he was been happy with how his team has performed inbig matches this season. In matches he counted as big, the team hasgone 9-4.
After this weekend, the Cardinals travel to Miami on Wednesdayand then have home matches against Eastern Michigan and Toledo thelast weekend of the regular season.
"Our challenge will be to get better, and we have some reallymajor tests," Litchfield said. "To go Friday night and to show thatwe're getting better and to beat a team on their home court isexactly how we need to start this five-match swing."
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