Two of the best men's volleyball programs in the country were looking to gain some momentum heading into their conference tournaments.
The match would prove to be a classic as it went to five games before No. 10 Pennsylvania State University defeated No. 14 Ball State University 3-2 (19-30, 26-30, 30-26, 30-28, 15-11).
Senior night for Evan Berg, Dave Carlson and Zoran Grabovac might not have been the picture-perfect ending they hoped for but they know they still have the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament title to work toward.
Game one for the Cardinals started out very quick with Ball State jumping out to a 9-4 lead early that prompted a Penn State time-out. The Cardinals pushed the score to 22-10 with a Nick Meyer kill set up by Matt McCarthy. The Cardinals pressed on and took game one with a Meyer kill set by Dave Carlson.
Game two started roughly for the Cardinals, who fell into a 4-0 hole before gaining their first point on a Nittany Lion error. Ball State struggled to stay close but gained ground and tied the game at 15 points a piece after consecutive Penn State errors. The last tie of game two was at 19-19 before another Nittany Lion error and a kill by Carlson. Meyer hit a service ace to clench game two.
The tables turned during game three. Four different Penn State players hit consecutive kills, and Dan O'Dell aced as the Nittany Lions roared to a quick 5-0 lead. Ball State was never able to catch up, and lost game three 30-26.
"They started getting into a pretty good rhythm with their outside attackers," coach Joel Walton said. "[Matt] Proper got on track, and you have to pay so much attention to their middles, and we got to a point where we weren't passing well and let them back into it."
Game four started with a kill by Meyer and three straight errors by Penn State to put the Cardinals up 4-0. The game's first tie was at 23-23 after a kill by Penn State's Alex Gutor, and the last tie came at 24-24 following a kill by Evan Berg. Game four ended with a kill by Proper.
Game five started much the same way game four did with five straight Penn State points and Ball State fought from behind but never caught up. Game, set and match concluded with Penn State's Max Holt getting the kill.
Meyer hit 25 kills on 47 attempts for a .404 hitting percentage. Also in double figures for the Cardinals was Patrick Durbin with 11 kills on 31 attempts for a .226 hitting percentage.
"Nick was definitely trying to carry us," Walton said. "Pat Durbin started off well, but it's hard at times to get on track against them, especially when our passers are off the net, and not giving Dave [Carlson] passes where he can run our middles."
The Cardinals don't have much time to sulk in the loss but hope to rebound as the MIVA conference tournament continues next weekend. Ball State has secured the third seed and will play Mercyhurst College in its opening round match on Saturday.
"We definitely need to use this as a motivator," Walton said. "It's frustrating that we had leads, and started to play tentative. We will use this in practice and definitely work on our blocking and serving."
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