After the Ball State University men's volleyball team was defeated by the Ball State Alumni team in three games, 30-26, 30-23, 30-28, coach Joel Walton told both teams they would be playing a fourth game in this exhibition.
With 18 players on the Alumni roster, Walton said the biggest reason for playing this extra game was to give all the Alumni members quality playing time.
"One way or another we needed to play four games because we needed to give them all time on the court," Walton said. "I would have liked to win some of those earlier games, but this is one of the strongest Alumni groups we've had come back in recent years."
In the fourth game, the Cardinals defeated the Alumni 30-25.
Overall, Ball State had a .213 attack average for the entire match, compared to the Alumni team's .300 attack percentage in the first three games.
However, the Cardinals had three players finish the match with 10 or more kills. Matt McCarthy led the team with 14 kills while Nick Meyer had 13 and Todd Chamberlain had 10.
McCarthy led the Cardinals with three serving aces.
"I thought we played all right," Meyer said. "These guys are really good and they've been around the block a couple times. We have a really young team right now and looking out there, they're experienced and we're working with a freshman setter. It's tough, but we are playing well."
For the Alumni, Keith Schunzel led the team with 52 assists and 11 digs and also had six kills.
Schunzel played for the Cardinals from 2001 to 2004, and is third on the school's all-time career assists list, with 5,558. In addition, Schunzel was a second team All-American in 2004.
"We had a fun group of guys, and we came here and played great," Schunzel said. "It's always fun to come back and talk a lot of junk."
Despite getting swept, Schunzel believes that the current Ball State team does have the potential to perform very well this upcoming season.
"I think this year's team is better than last year's team," Schunzel said. "The passing is good and the serving is tough, and once the setting shapes into form, then it's going to be a pretty good team."
Entering this game, Walton said the biggest area of concern was the development of freshmen setters Ethan Pheister and Jeff Schmitz.
Pheister finished the match with 30 assists and one error, while Schmitz had 28 assists and one error. In addition, both players had one serving ace.
"We're still looking at both of our setters and trying to figure out which of these guys will be the starter as we begin the season," Walton said. "What was nice about tonight was that we had a chance to play our entire roster and give people chances."
Throughout the preseason, the rest of the Ball State players have continued to gain more confidence in Pheister and Schmitz.
"They were pretty rough the first couple of weeks but they are moving in the right direction, improving, and that's all we can ask for," Meyer said.
The loss to the Alumni ends the Cardinals' preseason with a 6-5 record.
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