The Ball State University men's volleyball team hopes to end its Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association season on a good note this weekend as it travels to Ohio State University and Mercyhurst College.
"I just feel like in that last Ohio State match, our guys might have been a bit relaxed partly because we played a relatively easy match Friday night," coach Joel Walton said. "Ohio State, on the other hand, played a five-game knock-out battle with the IPFW Mastodons."
Junior outside attacker Nick Meyer is having a homecoming of sorts as he travels to Ohio this weekend.
"This weekend is going to be kind of special," Meyer said. "Some of my cousins are from the Columbus area so I'm going to have a pretty large crowd."
The added company and family doesn't pressure him, though.
"It usually doesn't phase me," Meyer said, "I just look at it as just another game, I try to look at it with the same mindset. It's in the back of your head when you realize your family is there and you want to do your best, but sometimes its not in the cards."
During the last match-up, the Buckeyes hammered the Cardinals 3-0 (31-29, 30-22, 30-28). Two of the players the Cardinals need to look out for are Robbie Klein and John Albertson.
"Just the hard thing for him is that they've played 22 lineups this year," Walton said. "Matthews has had to look at a different group of guys each night and try to figure out what's going to work for his team. His serve is one that we have to be attentive to whether he is jump serving or float serving."
Saturday night the Cardinals travel to Mercyhurst, a team they beat earlier this season 3-0 (30-27, 30-21, 30-28).
"Most of the time what you deal with at Mercyhurst is our guys go from a larger environment where there are a lot of people in the stands to where a place that you can almost hear the crickets creaking," Walton said. "Our guys almost have to make their own noise, and that's something that can make a team come out and play flat."
The Cardinals hope to get a couple wins this weekend so they can lock up the third spot in the MIVA.
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