Less than one year ago, outside attacker Marcus Imwalle would sit on the Ball State University men's volleyball team's bench, watching every match in a Ball State T-shirt and windbreaker.
However, this weekend the redshirt freshman became a pivotal reason for the No. 14 Cardinals wins against No. 7 UCLA, coach Joel Walton said.
Imwalle had a team-high 16 kills in the four-game win Friday and had a match-high 12 kills in a sweep against the Bruins on Saturday.
"I've just been working on my game a lot lately," Imwalle said. "I know I have to play good to stay on the court because we have a strong bench that can just come in and do as good of a job as I can do. So, I know I need to step it up a little bit more."
Walton said Imwalle was able to be successful because UCLA's game plan was to eliminate offensive production from outside attackers Patrick Durbin and Todd Chamberlain.
During both matches, Durbin and Chamberlain had less than 11 kills per match for the second time since Jan. 12, but the amount of attention they received allowed Imwalle to get limited coverage on the outside, Walton said.
"We figured out last night early on in the first game that was what they were doing and we made an adjustment early and [setter] Ethan [Pheister] stuck with it through both matches," he said.
With this weekend's performance, Imwalle led the Cardinals in kills during all three matches against the Bruins this season. In his collegiate debut earlier this season, Imwalle had a career-high 17 kills against the Bruins at the Outrigger Invitational in Hawaii.
In matches not against UCLA Imwalle has never led Ball State in kills.
Imwalle said at this time last season he could not have imaged what he accomplished this weekend, leading the Cardinals in kills against a nationally ranked team.
Walton and him also said they don't know what makes Imwalle play well against the Bruins.
"I think we need to figure out a way to make Marcus think he is playing against UCLA every night," Walton said. "We need to get a hypnotist to work with him and he'll see UCLA Bruins on every team's jersey."
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