Walking off the court Saturday after No. 1 Penn State University swept his No. 7 Ball State University men's volleyball team, coach Joel Walton said the national rankings were the last thing on his mind.
However, when he saw the other matches' results the next day, the coach said he knew his team had a chance to move up in the top-15 coaches poll.
Following a weekend when six teams ranked in the nation's top-10 lost a match, the Cardinals received 142 votes, five more than last week, to move up one spot to No. 6 in the coaches poll released Monday.
"It was such a weird week on the West Coast," Walton said. "Just some weird stuff was happening."
The Cardinals moved ahead of Stanford University, which dropped two spots to No. 8 after losing two matches during the weekend. Ball State's new ranking is its highest since the beginning of the 2003 season and comes less than two days after its 11-match winning streak came to an end.
Walton said he doubts his team will move higher in the poll because it does not have another regular season match against teams in the top five. He also said he is proud of this ranking because the Cardinals entered the season unranked, as opposed the 2003 squad that started the season ranked No. 7.
"No one was expecting our team to be good," Walton said. "Everything we've done from the run to getting consecutive conference wins, this year's team is benefiting from those things."
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