It took longer than they expected, but members of the No. 10 Ball State University men's volleyball team will take the win.
Three days after players said anything less than a sweep against Quincy University would be unacceptable, Ball State defeated Quincy 30-17, 30-17, 27-30, 30-27 in its conference tournament quarterfinal match Saturday at Worthen Arena.
"The fact we didn't win in three doesn't bode well for us because we should have handled them in game three, like we did in games one and two," outside attacker Patrick Durbin said. "Not to take anything away from Quincy because they have good players and a lot of heart, but with the talent on our team that shouldn't have happened."
In the first two games Ball State (20-9, 10-2 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) out-hit Quincy .509 to .055 and had 15 less attack errors than the Hawks (18-25, 1-11 MIVA). However, in the third game Quincy out-hit Ball State .237 to .205 and only trailed with the score 1-0.
Setter Ethan Pheister said the team could have played better. He also said following the third game the team was disappointed it could not complete the sweep against Quincy for the third time this season.
"We were all pissed," Pheister said. "We know we should have beat this team in three. We know if we came out and did what we were suppose to do we could have."
Coach Joel Walton said entering the third game he wanted to make up line-up changes to judge his team's comfort level before entering its semi-final match against No. 15 Lewis University.
At the start of game three, outside attacker Marcus Imwalle, who did not start for the second straight match, came off the bench to replace starting outside attacker Matt Sprague. In addition, Durbin, who had a match-high 25 kills, was substituted out midway through the game and returned with the Cardinals trailing 18-11.
"I don't know if it was their coach's speech or the line-up I played in that game, but Quincy came storming back," Walton said. "It's probably my fault more than anything else."
Saturday was the second consecutive match Durbin was the Cardinals' right outside attacker, after playing 24 matches this season in the left outside attacker position.
Walton said he is happy with the change and will keep Durbin the right side for the semi-final match.
"It's just opened up our offense and allowed us to run more offense from antenna to antenna, instead of only setting balls to the right side," Walton said.
With the win, Ball State advances to the MIVA semi-finals for the 10th consecutive season and will play Lewis at 5 p.m. Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. The Cardinals have won both their matches against the Flyers this season, including a four-game win at Romeoville, Ill., to conclude the regular season.
"We came out and kind of embraced them at their home. We all know they are better team than that," Pheister said. "We know we have to come out and play well and play better than we did [Saturday] because otherwise we'll be going home."
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