Justin Hesser
Chief Reporter
After only three days of practice, the Ball State men's volleyball team opened its season with a 3-0 (30-28, 30-28, 30-28) win over the St. Francis Red Flash on Saturday.
While the Cardinals got the win, head coach Joel Walton said he sees room for improvement. The team's offense, which had a hitting percentage of .307 last season, hit just .206 in its opener, including a game one percentage of .049.
The Cardinals only practiced once in Worthen this week because of power outages, so Walton said that might have caused his team to be a little uncomfortable on the court.
"Our offense isn't real consistent," Walton said. "For us, it wasn't necessarily the match where we felt like we were at home and really comfortable."
Walton also said setter Dave Carlson, who played his first game as a Cardinal, wasn't his usual self.
"I don't think we saw the Dave Carlson that we hope we'll see the rest of the year," Walton said. "We've seen him play a lot better this fall and as we prepare."
Walton said the team needs to work on its blocking as well. The Red Flash out-blocked the Cardinals nine to six. Junior middle attacker Zoran Grabovac had four total blocks (two solo and two assists) to lead the Cardinals.
"That's why this match was really close just because we did a poor job of blocking," Grabovac said.
One area BSU was strong in was serving, finishing the game with six service aces. Grabovac had a career-high five service aces in the match after only having just eight all of last season.
"I don't want to say that it was luck, but I think it's just match atmosphere, fans are here and adrenaline gets rushing" Grabovac said. "I definitely don't serve like this in practice."
The Cardinals were tested in each game but always had a run when they needed one.
The team plays its second home match of the season today against Newman. After losing four seniors last year, Walton said the team is still looking for its leaders.
"We've lost an awful lot of personality, all four of those guys gave our team attitude, fire, energy and competitiveness," Walton said. "We're trying to replace that and right now were looking out there and hoping to see guys take over some of the leadership roles.
"As we build through the season, hopefully I'll start to see who our team leaders are, and they'll start to come out and be more vocal on the court."
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