The Ball State University men's volleyball team has a chance to recover some ground this weekend as it has two home matches against the Milwaukee School of Engineering and IPFW.
Friday night the Cardinals (14-3, 4-2 Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) will host the Milwaukee School of Engineering (6-14, 1-4 MIVA Coleman Division) for a non-conference match-up. In the only other meeting between the two schools, the Cardinals won 3-0 (30-11, 30-8, 30-21) last season.
"I think its going to be a chance to give our guys a feel for playing volleyball again," coach Joel Walton said.
Saturday night the Cardinals can exact a bit of revenge as the Mastodons from IPFW (13-5, 5-2 MIVA) come to the confines of Worthen Arena for the 7 p.m. match. Back on Feb. 17, the Cardinals lost a heated battle with the Mastodons 3-1 (30-20, 35-33, 28-30, 30-24). IPFW came into the weekend with an 11-match winning streak. In the last 12 meetings between the two squads, Ball State has won 10 of them including six in a row in Worthen Arena.
"It is a long awaited rematch," Walton said. "We're going to begin with our starting group in the first game and give them a chance to get reacquainted before working in a few other lineups. We're going to make sure we have all our guys ready to contribute."
The match with IPFW gives the Cardinals a chance to gain ground on MIVA leader Loyola. It's also a great opportunity for the Cardinals to end the Mastodons' winning streak, as they did to Ball State on Feb. 17.
"We went into this season with a lot of motivation," Walton said. "We've shown we can play at a very high level in our conference, and we hope to show that Ball State is going to be a team to reckoned with."
This pivotal match in the MIVA is important for the Cardinals as they hope to boost their overall record going into the end of the season and post-season. If the Cardinals end up with the best record, they can look forward to hosting the MIVA tournament at the end of April.
"There's going to be a huge advantage to the team that comes out on top in the MIVA," Walton said. "We want to be the team to host, and you have to win if you want to continue to play."
The Cardinals hope to have fan support similar to the last few home games as this IPFW match will prove to be exciting.
"I know IPFW is going to be bringing down a fan bus," Walton said. "We just hope for the same crowd we've experienced with the Loyola and Ohio State matches because not only were the crowds large but they were loud and it's good to have that momentum boost."
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