Less than four days before playing for the conference regular season championship, coach Joel Walton said he is not concerned, but he's not happy with his team's performance this weekend.
The No. 6 Ball State University men's volleyball team lost to No. 12 George Mason University 33-31, 30-26, 26-30, 30-26 on Saturday at Worthen Arena and for the second consecutive week lost to a nationally ranked team in non-conference play.
In addition, it was the final match before the first-place Cardinals (18-8, 9-1 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) play second-place, No. 10 Ohio State University (15-7, 8-1 MIVA) on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
"What the loss [Saturday] should make all of us do is work a little bit harder this week for Ohio State and to make sure we go over there and we're ready to play a better match than we have the last two or three weeks," Walton said. "We got to look to get in rhythm."
The Cardinals had a .165 attack percentage against George Mason, their second lowest total since Jan. 5. The Patriots had a .239 attack percentage and two players finished the match with at least 20 kills, including outside attacker Kyle Gramit, who had 10 kills in game one.
"The first two games our team felt really flat," outside attacker Lee Meyer said. "It didn't feel like there was much energy on the court."
In February, Ball State had a .234 attack percentage in a five-game win against the Patriots.
Walton said part of the problem Saturday is the Cardinals are playing opponents for the second time this season and teams are making adjustments to eliminate what Ball State does successfully.
One adjustment the Cardinals made midway through game three was bringing setter Jeff Schmitz off the bench to replace starting setter Ethan Pheister.
Schmitz finished the match with 20 assists and a .476 assist percentage, compared to Pheister, who had 33 assists and a .371 assist percentage.
Schmitz said the biggest difference when he ran the offense was the Cardinals' passing.
"Once our passing quickened that offense was just easy and there were no troubles," he said.
Schmitz was the 2007 MIVA Freshman of the Year and started 23 matches last season. This season he started one match and has primarily come off the bench to spot serve.
Pheister, who became the starting setter one week before the 2007 MIVA Tournament, is second in the conference with a 12.09 assists per game average.
Walton said he was unsure whether Schmitz or Pheister will start against Ohio State and said he will discuss the situation with his assistant coaches in the next few days.
"I'm pleased with the job Jeff did coming in off the bench and it should be good motivation for Ethan to have a solid week of practice," Walton said.
Meyer said in order for Ball State to beat Ohio State, the entire team needs a strong week of practice.
"That is something we've been struggling with the last couple of weeks and we just need to focus on every touch and go after every ball," he said.
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