Ashley Griffith n Staff Reporter
This weekend will be crucial for the Ball State University women's volleyball team if they want to keep their hopes of winning the Mid-American Conference West Division championship alive.-á
Both Western Michigan University and Northern Illinois University play at a high level, and NIU is leading the division at this point with a record of 5-1-0 in the MAC.-á
"I think that this is an absolutely critical weekend," coach Randy Litchfield said.-á"First of all, to show that we can win at home, and [then we need to] beat the MAC west leader.-áIf we want a divisional championship we must sweep this weekend."
To sweep this weekend like the team wishes and Litchfield hopes, the Cardinals (3-3 MAC record) must improve on its offense.
"We have to figure out a way to get more middle offense," Litchfield said.-á"So we've changed some things, like some of our timing; it would be nice to see that work over the weekend. It would be a big benefit to us to see Brittany May and Kirby Gibson get more swings."
After the team's last game, coach Randy Litchfield said that one of the reasons why the team is losing is because at home games the players cannot remain focused.-áBoth games are at home this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how the Cardinals stay focused.
"They need to be treated like grown ups, and the ball has to be in their court on this one," Litchfield said.-á"They can't be hand held all night long. It's just a matter of maturity, and they have to buckle down."
The main goal of the senior players this past week was to the help the team rebound and focus on the task at hand.-áStephanie Bacan has played long enough to know that you take each game one at a time, and has put last weekend in the past.
"We just want to rebound after what happened last weekend," Bacan said.-á"Going into the weekend, we thought we were prepared and things just kind of fell apart; we played below the level we should have.-áThis week we just focused on bouncing back. We are playing against two good teams this weekend."
The Cardinals play Western Michigan Friday night and Northern Illinois Saturday night, both games start at 7 p.m. in Worthen Arena.
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