After losing the first two games to No. 9 Pacific University Saturday, coach Joel Walton had one message to the No. 15 Ball State University men's volleyball team during the intermission: He was embarrassed.
The message was well received as Ball State (12-9) came back to defeat Pacific (14-11) in five games (27-30, 20-30, 30-23, 30-24, 15-13) and won the Don Shondell/Active Ankle Challenge.
"The way we played at the end of game two was embarrassing," Walton said. "We were starting to let balls hit the ground. We weren't giving any effort, hanging our heads and I let into the guys."
In the first two games, the Cardinals had 16 assists, 21 kills and a .067 attack percentage. Following the intermission, Ball State had 29 assists, 31 kills and a .224 attack percentage.
"The first two games we came out pretty flat and not with a lot of energy," outside attacker Nick Meyer said. "That's not the way we want to play at home and it's not the team we are. We could play a whole lot better and we just needed to come out and play with some energy."
Walton said the biggest change made after intermission was replacing setter Jeff Schmitz with Ethan Pheister and bringing outside attacker Matt Sprague off the bench.
In the final three games, Pheister had a team-high 28 assists and Sprague had three kills and a team-high 11 digs.
"We started to find some rhythm with that group and let them go to the end," Walton said. "Maybe because Sprague and Pheister had some fresh legs some of the other guys found that energy reserved."
Prior to Saturday's match, Pheister had played in 22-of-70 games and hadn't started a match since Schmitz replaced him as the starting setter after the season's third match.
"He hasn't really been in a game that long so for him to come out and do what he did and lead us to a victory is pretty big," libero Ian Peckler said.
In game five, Ball State trailed 10-6 before ending the match on a 9-3 run.
Walton said the Cardinals were able to make the comeback because of Meyer's serving and offense.
Meyer had six kills in the final game and finished with a match-high 26 kills. Meyer also had two of the Cardinals' four aces in the match.
"I just wanted to go and take control of that match," Meyer said. "I told Ethan, 'Just give me the ball' ... I just wanted to take this game and put it on my shoulders."
Pacific had 24 service errors, the second most it has had in a match this season, while Ball State had 14.
Walton said Pacific's inconsistent serving helped the Cardinals comeback because they were more tentative serving in game five.
"They lightened up on their serves and started serving more float serves and weren't trying to rip jump serves," Walton said. "We did a better job passing those balls."
The Cardinals won without outside attacker Todd Chamberlain. Chamberlain has missed the last five matches because of a 30-day team suspension for violating team policy.
Walton wouldn't say on what rule Chamberlain violated and wouldn't deny or confirm if the suspension was due to illegal activity of Chamberlain when asked.
Walton said a 30-day suspension was a standard procedure for violating the unspecified team rule.
"[The suspension] sent a very clear message to Todd and the rest of our team that the rule he violated and all of our team rules are serious rules that need to be respected and honored," Walton said.
The Cardinals advanced to play Pacific in the championship game after defeating George Mason University in four games Friday. Meyer had a match-high 25 kills and Ball State had three players with more than 10 digs against the Patriots. The win against Pacific was the second time Ball State defeated a nationally-ranked opponent this season. Prior to the match, the Cardinals were 1-7 against ranked teams and had lost their last four matches to ranked teams.
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