Leaning back on the Irving Gym wall during Wednesday's practice, setter Ethan Pheister said he could not remember playing in a regular season match with the stakes being as high as this match.
Tied for first place with two matches remaining in the season, the No. 8 Ball State University men's volleyball team and No. 9 Ohio State University will play at 7 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio for a chance to win the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association regular-season championship.
"I've never been in a situation like this and I think it will be new for almost everyone," Pheister said. "There will be some butterflies on the bus ride over."
For Ball State (18-8, 9-1 MIVA), a win Thursday would give the team its first conference regular-season championship since 2002. If Ohio State (16-7, 9-1 MIVA) wins and beats sixth-place Mercyhurst College on Saturday, it would clinch its second consecutive MIVA regular-season title, becoming the second school in the last 10 years to accomplish that feat.
In addition, the MIVA regular season champion will receive the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, earn a bye in the tournament's first round and play host to the conference semi-finals April 24 and the championship match April 26.
"Pretty much our entire season is coming down to this match," outside attacker Patrick Durbin said. "Since I've been here I can't recall us being in a position to finish in first and where we held our destiny in our hands."
Coach Joel Walton said a win would also vindicate the Cardinals being predicted in the MIVA preseason coaches poll to finish in fifth place in the conference. Walton - who said he "sandbagged" his team in the preseason poll - enters every season expecting his team will have a chance for first place at the end of the season, he said.
"It's more of a surprise to me the years we don't get into the conference championship match," he said.
In February, Ball State defeated Ohio State in four games during the Cardinals' 11-match winning streak.
Since that winning streak ended two weeks ago, Ball State is 2-1 with a loss to No. 12 George Mason University in its last match. In addition, in two of its last four matches, Ball State had its lowest team attack percentage since Jan. 5.
Walton said he will not make any changes to Thursday's starting line-up and will start Pheister, who was benched in game three of the George Mason match.
Pheister said the offense has not be as efficient the last two weeks because he has been relying on two offensive options and not diversifying his sets to all five players.
Durbin said this week in practice the team spent a majority of its time preparing to get middle attackers Matt McCarthy and J.D. Gasparovic more involved in the offense.
"We've worked on setting the middle and running shoot the middle, which is going to open up more of our outsides more so than running a regular spread offense," he said.
Walton said Ohio State will most likely attempt to eliminate the offensive production for the middle attackers and Durbin, resulting in outside attacker Marcus Imwalle facing fewer blockers throughout the match. Imwalle is averaging 3.08 kills per match, the second most for the Cardinals this season.
"I'm sure they will put pressure on Imwalle or who is playing right side to put the ball away," Walton said. "We got to make sure that we pass well enough that we can still run our middles. Our right side attacker has to be ready to carry the load."
The Buckeyes enter this match on a four-match winning streak, including a five-game win against IPFW on Tuesday.
Durbin said assistant coach Steve Shondell traveled to Fort Wayne to scout the Buckeyes and the team feels more confident after Shondell gave his scouting report.
"It plays into our hands," Durbin said. "Some thing we struggle with is passing float serves and Ohio State is primarily a jump serving team. They start out serving strong and as long as we handle it in the beginning they kind of die out in the end and just get the ball in play."
MIVA Standings
| Team | MIVA | Overall |
| Ball State | 9-1 | 18-8 |
| Ohio State | 9-1 | 16-7 |
| Lewis | 7-4 | 20-8 |
| Loyola | 7-5 | 15-12 |
| IPFW | 5-7 | 12-12 |
| MC | 1-10 | 5-18 |
| Quincy | 1-11 | 18-24 |
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
