A road schedule that has the Ball State University women's volleyball team traveling to all but one game in November will continue this weekend as the Mid-American Conference regular season comes to an end.
Before capturing two wins on the road last weekend, the team had only won two away games. Now the team has won four and is looking for two more this weekend when they close out the MAC season by traveling to Eastern Michigan on Friday and Central Michigan on Saturday.
Part of the reason the team has improved its road play is because of some creative thinking coach Randy Litchfield has done in practice.
With sophomore Angie Parrell in her first year as starting setter, Litchfield said she hasn't had the experience of playing in high pressure and high profile matches. Therefore Litchfield wanted to create some tougher situations for her during practice.
"We've done all sorts of weird things," he said. "A person that would walk into our gym and see it would just wonder what the heck is going on."
One atypical thing someone might see in practice is Parrell setting a volleyball lubricated with massage oils.
"Angie's prone under pressure to mishandle, and we learned that she sweats so much and her hands are soaked all the time," Litchfield said. "So we wanted to condition her a little bit to handle that ball that's a little wet."
In addition to that, certain players are assigned to yell at Parrell when she's in the middle of setting to try and confuse her.
"That seems to be effective, plus it's kind of fun," Litchfield said.
The tactics worked last weekend, and the team returned home from Akron and Toledo with wins. The match against Akron didn't start out well; the Cardinals lost game one 30-28 before winning game two 37-35 and eventually winning the match 3-2.
"Last weekend was a big test for us," senior Sarah Obras said. "We started out a little shaky at Akron, but I think it taught us a lot."
In preparation for this weekend and the MAC Tournament, the team was also given light practices early in the week. Litchfield said that the tournament format is too grueling to have a team that isn't fresh.
"We've put a big focus on rest," he said. "For 17 years, I've opted to try and be fresh and rested, and it's worked more often than not."
The rest seemed to be paying off, too. Litchfield tested jumps in practice this week and said that some people just skyrocketed.
Ball State is focusing on having a great passing, serving and blocking weekend, Obras said.
"Those are basically the key things to how we play our game," she said. "When those are going well, everything else seems to fall into place."
Obras enters this weekend's contest 22 kills shy of becoming the MAC's all-time kill leader, but said she isn't focusing on that. Instead, she's focused on blocking and passing.
Junior libero Amanda McCormick said everything seems to be clicking and that the team needs to continue to improve going into the MAC Tournament.
Ball State will receive a first-round bye, however, it could finish as high as the No. 2 seed or as low as the No. 4 seed. To clinch the No. 2 seed, the Cardinals need two wins and an Eastern Michigan loss to Toledo.
"It's important for us to not take for granted what we have going right now and how well we're playing," McCormick said. "[We] can use it as momentum to make the season last longer because you have to want it to last longer."
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