Playing a team with 19 NCAA championships this weekend, coach Joel Walton said he is hoping the chance win a $500 scholarship will draw a larger attendance for the two home matches.
The No. 14 Ball State University men's volleyball team announced Wednesday it will have two serving-accuracy contests for Ball State students to compete in during the matches against No. 7 UCLA, with the winners receiving a $500 scholarship.
"We are just fortunate we have some alumni in the program and they are really good to us," Walton said.
The scholarship for Friday's match will be sponsored by the H.H. Greg Center for Profession Selling, and men's volleyball alumnus Dale Flannery will donate Saturday's scholarship.
Entering Worthen Arena, students can submit their name into a raffle before the start of the match, said Ramon Avila, George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Marketing, the founding director of the H.H. Gregg Center for Professional Selling and a men's volleyball alumnus.
Avila said during the intermission between game two and three, 10 names will be drawn from the student raffle and he will serve a ball on the Worthen Arena court. Each contestant then will be allowed one serve, and the person whose serve land the closest to where Romano's serve landed will win the $500 scholarship.
Avila said he thought of the idea as a way to promote the volleyball team and the H.H. Greg Center. He also said similar events have happened at other Ball State athletics events and usually have resulted in large attendances.
This season the men's volleyball team is average home attendance is 881 people per match, including a season-high 1,873 people in attendance for the Cardinals match against then-No. 8 Ohio State University.
Avila and Walton said they expect around 3,000-4,000 people in attendance for both matches this weekend.
"There also seems to be a lot buzz around this match on this campus and people want to see two highly ranked teams," Avila said. "The joke was when I played the better as the crowd got bigger and I played worse the smaller the crowd."
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